Gemini
by Dubbers
Summary: Pollux and Castor, the Gemini twins. Nikola and Helen had often joked that they were them - excluding minor gender issues: but will the similarities between the pairs be too close for comfort? Background info provided, own knowledge unnecessary. Complete!
1. Stargazing

Gemini

This is my August Teslen GW fic – Stargazing – or at least the beginning of it.

**Things you need to know**: Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces) are the two twin top stars in the constellation of Gemini, they were also (in mythology) twin brothers. There are many different versions of the stories about them, but in the version I'm using they both had different fathers: Pollux's father was Zeus so he was immortal, but Castor was not. When Castor was mortally wounded Pollux opted – with the help of Zeus – to share his immortality with his brother, and the twins shared their time between Hades and Olympus, also becoming part of the constellation Gemini. The Spartans associated them with dual kingship. The brothers 'eloped' with the daughters of their uncle Leucippus, who were already engaged to their cousins. When taking revenge on these same cousins they sort of inadvertently helped start the Trojan war by leaving Helen – their sister – with Paris.

Sorry if this isn't all correct – I tried my best, so let's call it AU, as it will be later anyway.

Set early season 2.

The way this is written may seem slightly odd, maybe OOC, but you'll see why. Unbeta'd, disclaimed. Enjoy :D

Chapter 1 - Stargazing

Helen looked up.

Correction: Helen opened her eyes and found that she was looking up.

Helen kept looking up.

It was a beautiful night; by the depth of darkness she judged it to be about two in the morning, but she couldn't be bothered to raise her arm to check the watch that she may or may not have been wearing. It wasn't as if it really mattered anyway – as far as she could remember there was nowhere she had to be anytime soon. Well, there were lots of places that maybe she _should_ be, where they would _like_ her to be; but nothing urgent. The world wasn't ending today.

Or maybe it was. She couldn't really remember, but she was sure Will would come and find her if it was, so it wouldn't matter if she just lay here for a while, and admired the beautiful night.

The stars were twinkling temptingly down at her, the surrounding trees suddenly giving way to their conquered night. She'd always wondered (to herself at least) whether there was life out there, among those twinkling stars. She'd only told Ashley about that, when her daughter had been about eight and had had an obsessive stage with space. Helen had been surprised with the fascination, after all, they saw plenty of weird, alien-like things everyday; there was enough on earth to keep you occupied – so she blamed too much sci-fi. But Helen had been happy to sit up and talk about it, long past both their bed times; exploring the possibilities, wondering aloud to each other about what people from other worlds would look like. Helen had for once let go of her scientific-self and let herself laugh with glee at the preposterous and improbable ideas they came up with: red smurfs with elephant trunks had been her favourite.

They'd talked about travelling to other worlds, Ashley excitedly exclaiming that she'd like to visit Saturn one day, and wondering if they would have met aliens when she was old enough to get a job. Helen had hummed and they'd fallen into silence.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter." Ashley broke the serene atmosphere after a moment.

Helen had looked at her, puzzled. "Why ever not?"

"Cos if I'm too old to go to Saturn and meet aliens you can always go, and tell them hi from me."

Helen still remembered that her daughter's innocent reply had shocked her to the core; the childish understanding of her mother's longevity only serving to remind her that she would be likely to outlive her. Ashley had fallen asleep soon afterwards, and Helen had cradled her small body throughout the night.

A particularly bright star served to bring Helen back to the present. She stared at it for a while, before realising that it wasn't a star at all. The little flashing lights were a tell tale sign that it was in fact a plane. She followed its descent with her eyes – it would probably land not too far away – before a familiar line of three stars caught her attention.

Orion's belt; a navigational aide for many over the years.

She traced the stars that made up the distinctive form of Orion: _Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel..._

She'd always loved this particular constellation, maybe because she felt an affinity with The Hunter: chasing the prey to the farthest edges of the world, never giving up, planning everything to the letter only to have to abandon all strategies and just wing it – which was how she'd ended up where she was today. And Helen loved it; her fast-paced, thrilling life; always something to do, species to discover, friends to make.

Up from her fellow hunter's arm was the less distinctive Gemini, with its twin stars; Castor and Pollux. In Oxford one night, herself and Nikola had met in a small park that was now long gone, laid down on the grass and stared up at them. They'd joked about how they were those twins.

"We'll have many adventures together Nikola."

Nikola had hummed. "Yes; hunting strange boars, wrecking cities, stealing beautiful women from their fiancés..."

Helen slapped his shoulder playfully. "You can do enough of _that_ for the both of us."

"Come now Helen, you're not jealous, are you?"

She laughed, but didn't answer. "Does that mean we're going to indirectly help to start another Trojan war?"

Nikola grinned cheekily. "You never know. Taking revenge on Griffin and Watson for that trick they pulled yesterday could be fun."

Helen had heard the frown in Nikola's voice, and remembered how that particular prank hadn't gone down well, mainly because Nikola had ended up with bright pink hair for several hours afterwards. In an attempt to distract him from plotting the downfall of two of her friends, she pulled him back to their conversation.

"So which one are you then?"

"Pollux, obviously; what with being a vampire now and all."

"Pollux wasn't a vampire. An abnormal maybe, but not a vampire."

"Says you."

"Nikola, don't be daft!"

"Me, daft? Never. Even so, that wasn't what I meant." Helen had known that anyway, but it didn't hurt to tease him. "What I meant, was that – at least according to some versions – Pollux was immortal, and now so am I."

"Does that mean I can call you Polly then?"

Nikola turned his head, eyes wide. "Don't you dare."

"Why not...Polly?"

"Helen..." The deeper tone in his voice told her his fangs were out. But it didn't bother her anymore – she knew he wouldn't hurt her.

"Polly..." she countered.

Nikola flopped his head backwards again, giving a dramatic sigh. "You're insufferable."

"But you love me for it." There was a pause, and Helen wondered if her light-hearted tone had caught him off guard. She was just about to speak again she felt his hand seek out her own and give it a quick squeeze, before retreating.

"And I always will. Never change." He whispered.

"I'll try." She whispered back.

"Helen, if I could, like Pollux did for Castor, I would share my immortality with you." It was a surprisingly sincere, caring statement, and Helen's eyes couldn't help but start to fill with tears. Repeating his earlier gesture, she reached out and gave his hand a quick squeeze, to show she appreciated the comment. She saw him smile slightly, before he continued. "Although, I could just bite you, make you a vampire, and we could rule the world together: dual kingship, if you will."

Helen laughed, one part of her glad to be back on familiar ground with her friend, another saddened that he'd swept aside his emotions once more.

They stared up at the stars some more.

Helen stared up at the stars some more; wishing that Nikola was here with her now. But as usual he'd run away, legged it as soon as he could after the incident with..._Ashley_.

She'd understood it, really she had; he'd invented the weapon that she'd pointed at her daughter, which could have killed her daughter. It didn't matter that she hadn't used against her, that in the end Ashley had...it didn't matter: Ashley had died and his actions had led to it. Or at least that was how he'd seen it, and she hadn't confronted him, hadn't reassured him, had just..._her_ actions had probably only convinced him of his guilt, and he'd fled.

Helen still couldn't help but feel disappointed.

She turned her attention back to the stars, which she was pretty sure had moved slightly from when she'd first started looking.

Taurus caught her eye next.

It wasn't really one she'd been that interested in before, although she had stared at it for a long time when Henry had once – quite accurately – stated that it looked much more like a bent fork than a bull. Staring at it some more now, Helen eventually came to the conclusion that it was actually a giant K. K for Knowledge, K for Killing, K for...Kleenex. _Yes_, she decided, some helpful god had left her a message in the sky: get some tissues and mop up that awful red stain on your shirt, and that one on your leg, and you arm...

Now that she concentrated, Helen could tell that the sky had definitely become several shades lighter while she was..._pondering_. Still pitch black, but a lighter pitch black.

Helen smiled.

For the first time in a long while she felt at peace: just lying here in the cool grass, alone, staring up at the sky. Her generally constant headache had retreated to a dull ache, and as time passed she felt as if it was finally receding altogether.

And then the stars started going out. One by one at the bottom of her vision, and possibly beyond, though she wasn't going to move her head to find out, as that probably had a nice red stain on it too, and she wouldn't want to rub it in or it'd be hellish to remove. Bright little stars just vanishing, the blackness creeping steadily upwards: _Saiph, Rigel..._until the Hunter was gone. Next went the Kleenex, although it started disappearing before Orion's head. After Taurus several more stars lost their lives in the fruitless battle against the dreadful darkness before Gemini succumbed. Castor and Pollux _blinked_ as the stars above them vanished, but remained stubbornly in place. In fact, they seemed to Helen to be getting bigger, gradually resembling two shapes that looked vaguely like eyes; lovely, familiar, blue eyes.

_Maybe they come bearing Kleenex..._and then the darkness got them too.

***grins* Sorry if you're confused, but the second chapter should be up soon and hopefully clear things up :) I'd love to know what you all thought.**


	2. Worry

**I got this up much quicker than expected :) *celebrates***

**Unbeta'd, disclaimed: don't try to call me on the geography - you will win. Enjoy!  
**

Chapter 2

Worry

Nikola had to admit it; he was panicked. It wasn't often he got into such a state, but whenever he did it seemed to have quite a lot to do with one Helen Magnus. This time was the same, except for the fact that he had had nothing to do with whatever it was Helen had got herself into, and couldn't get herself out of, which was the whole reason why Nikola was worried. The protégée had called _him_ – he hadn't asked how he'd known how to get in touch – to come to Helen's aid, which meant that her team had no idea how to help her, or that she was in a dire situation indeed.

He had no sooner arrived at the Sanctuary when he was ushered into Helen's office by a very uncomfortable looking Henry with his arm in a sling. Nikola raised an eyebrow.

"Trip over a chair?"

Henry growled but muttered: "Grappled with a unicorn."

Under any other circumstance Nikola would have pursued that, but the atmosphere was tense, Helen wasn't in sight and he was dreading the reason.

He looked around quickly – Will was standing at Helen's desk, Henry had placed himself besides him, the new head of the London Sanctuary, Deckchair or something like that (he actually couldn't remember that one), the Sasquatch was sulking in the corner, several members who looked decidedly abnormal were sat around, and Miss Freelander was perched on the windowsill – he would have to remember to remark about her presence later, and tell her off for sitting in such a place (Helen would not be pleased). Nobody, he noticed, was sitting in Helen's chair.

He looked back to Will, who was obviously in charge. "What's going on?"

Will swallowed. "It's Magnus – she's missing."

Another eyebrow raised – the same one in fact, he had put it down earlier. "So?" Helen missing was something he was _very_ familiar with.

Glances were exchanged before Will ploughed on. "We lost contact with her several days ago from the south of England where she was on holiday; we can't find her anywhere."

"Must I repeat myself? _So?_ She often wanders off by herself, and if she was on holiday maybe she didn't want _you_ bugging her."

Henry butted in, tired of dancing around the point when they were all so on edge.

"She said she'd found a rare abnormal, and was tracking it down. When we headed over we found her coat, her phone and wallet, all covered in blood – _her_ blood, but we couldn't locate her. We left a team there still looking, but so far there's been nothing. She could be anywhere."

Nikola stared: now he saw the point.

"When do we leave?"

_Immediately_, the answer seemed to be.

SANCTUARY

They took a plane, private, not commercial – one of Helen's nice rich friends had been appealed too and answered: "Anything for Helen." At first Nikola had snorted, laughing that she had so many people under her spell; then he remembered that he'd pulled himself away halfway across the world from an important experiment and was now going to south England for her. So he shut up and drank some wine.

The journey was uneventful, too long for his liking, and tense. Nobody liked just waiting, and when you shove five tense people who don't always get along into a small tube with wings you shouldn't expect them to sit still for a couple of hours and play nice.

"So Tiny Tim, your nose not good enough to track a trail like a good little bloodhound?"

"There _was_ no trail!" Henry glowered.

"There's always a trail: although I wouldn't expect you to find it, being such an amateur and all."

Henry started up only to be restrained by Will.

"Whoa, easy there; we're all after the same thing, killing each other won't help Helen one bit."

Nikola snorted. "Are you sure about that? I bet she secretly hates you and only puts up with you out of the goodness of her heart."

Henry strained against Will's arm.

"Don't let him get to you." The physco-analyst said quietly.

"Get to you?" Nikola laughed. "You think I'm trying to "get to you"? Oh no my dear boy, this is simply trifling amusement."

Henry growled, Nikola growled back – two sets of fangs grew, two pairs of eyes changed colours, two sets of claws appeared. The vampire and the werewolf faced off, Will being unable to keep the latter back.

"Hey hey, calm down – both of you!" It was Kate who butted in this time, luckily before Henry lost his pants. "Stop behaving like children!"

Whether or not that would have worked, she wasn't left to find out, for at that moment message came over the intercom: they were about to land, so would they please return to their seats and do their seat belts up?

Nikola sighed – he could do with a good fight, though he would save that for whatever had hurt Helen.

SANCTUARY

As soon as the plane set down, Nikola was away, or he was until Will called him back for an impromptu meeting.

"There's no time to waste." The vampire growled having morphed to better find Helen.

"There are still teams out there looking for her, we can afford a minute." Will was giving him _that_ stare; the one that said 'I know best, so listen'. Nikola was well acquainted with that look, as Watson used to do it, so he knew it was best to humour the man – he might say something useful.

"Right, we'll be able to cover more ground if we split up; there are still plenty of places we haven't checked." He gestured to several directions in the forest woods around them. "We're going to need flashlights as it's pretty dark already, but there should be glow sticks in the places that have already been checked."

Nikola looked up, and saw that it was indeed dark, night time in fact, he just hadn't noticed with his enhanced vision. Kate spoke up before he had the chance.

"Glowsticks?" she asked incredulously. "As in those things you get at parties?"

"Not quite."

"And are you sure about splitting up? Cos that's what they do in all the spooky films before they get taken down one by one by the evil monster."

"Kate," Will sighed, "This isn't a movie."

"But there is an evil monster that took down Magnus."

"We'll go in pairs, so there's someone watching your back."

"Plus we have monster bashing guns." Henry piped up, twirling said object.

"Ah, good, I feel _much_ better now."

"Well, if that's all the questions?" Will asked, trying to gain control again. "Good, okay. Henry, you go with Kate and meet up with the others; Big Guy, you and Decklan take that direction..."

Nikola grinned. "Leaving the evil vampire – me – and the Watson wannabe."

Will pursed his lips. "Yeah..."

Everyone else headed off, giving Will sympathetic glances which were not lost on Nikola. The vampire raised his eyebrows. "Where was Helen's coat found?"

Will pointed to a patch of trees to the left and they headed off.

SANCTUARY

There were still traces of blood at the scene, small drops, but nonetheless still blood: _Helen's blood._

"How can you tell it's hers?" Will asked.

"Are you doubting me?"

"I just want to make sure."

Nikola swiped some of the blood on his fingers, first lifting it to his nose. "It smells like her blood," then to his eyes. "It looks like her blood – you can see the source blood shining slightly," finally to his lips. "It tastes like her blood. Happy now?" he set about scouring around for more.

"Wait; _taste?_ How do you know what it t-" Will's eyes widened comically. "No way, you didn't!"

"Didn't what? Bite her? Of course not; she gave me some of her blood to keep me alive before she developed my medication; back when I still needed to feed."

"Ah."

"Yes, now kindly be quiet, you're incessant droning is disrupting, and simply annoying."

The doctor obviously wasn't happy with that, but shut up anyway.

As well as several more drops of Helen's blood, he found (some way off) a few pieces of her hair snagged on low branches – _really _low, as in ground level – and a lot more blood. Nikola turned to Will incredulously.

"And how, exactly, did your teams miss _this_?" he pointed to the blood covered stones.

"Urr-"

Nikola held up his hand to cut off the idiot's excuse. "No talking remember?" Lifting his pale nose into the air he was able to catch the scent of Helen's blood floating with the wind. Without pausing to inform Zimmerman of his find he bared his fangs and headed off at full speed.

"HEY!" a small voice behind him protested. "Where are y-" but then he was too far away, and it wasn't as if he cared. All that mattered was the leaves beneath his feet, the sent in the air, and getting to Helen before it was too late.


	3. Running

**Phew, here it is, thanks so much for all the encouragment. Word of warning though, updates will not be quite so quick, still quick hopefully, maybe day after tomorrow? I'm not sure.**

**Sorry if this seems a little rushed, but, umm...it was :D**

**Mistakes are mine but nothing else. Enjoy :D  
**

Chapter 3 – Running

Nikola ran as fast as he could, but he still felt as if he was being too slow. He had no idea where he was heading, except that the general direction was further south. Wherever he was going, the journey was taking him too long: Helen had been missing now for...? Two days? Three days? Less? _More? _He remembered now it hadn't actually been specified, and he'd been too wound up to ask. That had been a mistake. Although three days without water would mean she was dead, it was the blood loss he was most worried about: if she'd lost _too_ much...

But Nikola wasn't going to think about that, especially as Helen had a rather good track record of beating the odds and staying alive.

The scent was getting stronger: Nikola's nostrils flared.

"_Dammit." _He could feel himself starting to lose control; the smell of blood overwhelming his senses, causing his brain to go into overdrive. All those carefully built safeguards and defences against exactly this being stripped away, because oh god it smelt so good-

He entered a clearing, stopped and stared; all thoughts of blood suddenly draining from his mind. The smell was still there - more poweful than ever in fact, but Nikola didn't care anymore, not when-

"Oh god, no..."

Despite his earlier hurry, he couldn't bring himself to run; instead he walked slowly over, feet making little sound on the ground, fangs retracting, nails shortening, eyes clearing.

"Helen?" he asked quietly, his voice barely audible to his own ears over the rustling of the trees, and the sounds of the night. There was no reply, but he thought he saw her move slightly. Nikola hoped it hadn't been the wind.

She was lying in the middle of the small clearing; almost as if she'd chosen that spot particularly and had just lay down to admire the night sky. Who knew, maybe she had. She was lying straight, relaxed-looking, feet slightly apart, arms loosely by her sides, face up: there were no drag marks though, so maybe it had been out of her own free will, though why Helen would lie down in such an obvious place if she was in danger Nikola couldn't fathom.

Unless she knew she needed to be found; she knew she was dying...

_What if it was just him and John now?_

He shuddered.

Nikola immediately tossed that thought away, angry for even having it in the first place: Helen wasn't dead, and she wasn't dying – she wouldn't dare leave him alone with Druitt. He approached her feet, pausing just parallel to the right and closed his eyes; just listening.

Soon he heard it, that beautiful sound, the rhythm of life itself: _breathing_. Helen's heartbeat. Everything was alright now; Helen wasn't dead; but even though he was certain, he couldn't bring himself to look, _just in case_. It was stupid, he knew it; he was wasting time that it was quite possible she didn't have, just because he was scared: a _coward_. Everyone would be so disappointed.

Instead he turned his gaze skywards. _Orion, Taurus, Gemini...Castor and Pollux..._

"_Polly..." _The words came back to him.

"_Helen, if I could, like Pollux did for Castor, I would share my immortality with you."_

He wasn't going to lose Helen now, not after everything they'd gone through.

He looked down.

He felt the blood rush from his face, all his previous relief fleeing at the sight of her bloodied body, and now he could hear that her breathing – far from being the steady sound of life – was actually the laboured, sporadic sound of pain and struggle.

He stepped forward again so he was level with her knees to better assess her injuries. Her eyes were open, staring, but unfocussed; coupled with the alarming amount of blood from what had to be a painful head wound she obviously had a serious concussion. Most of her showing skin was pale and bruised, except for her right arm which had three long, bright red scratches trailing down it, and a patch of trouser had been torn away from her lower left thigh revealing more of the same claw marks. There was more blood on her shirt, but from the angle and the pattern (and the lack of injury) Nikola was able to ascertain that it was merely from where she'd clutched her right arm to the chest. A quick further study left him satisfied that her arm and leg were both superficial wounds, and it was only her head that he had to worry about.

And worry he would.

"Helen?" he stepped closer, level with her hips and leant over into her line of sight, absently noting that he was casting a shadow over her, blocking out the starlight.

For a second he could've sworn she met his gaze; their piercing blue locked on his.

Her eyes closed slowly, almost as if she was sorry to do so, but they closed nonetheless, and they didn't open again.

"Helen?" Nikola whispered, crouching down. He ran one hand along her cheek, startled at finding how cold it was. "Helen?" Louder this time; he couldn't hear her breathing anymore. Still no response.

"HELEN!"

The night paused, listening to the echoes of Nikola's pain filled cry off every surface within a ten mile radius.

Some creatures howled in response; empathising with a fellow's grief.

The man himself didn't notice; didn't notice the shouts from some way off, didn't notice a light stop nearby, didn't notice that his skin had become several shades paler as his survival instincts kicked in, didn't notice anything in fact _until..._

_Thump thump..._

_Thump thump..._

Nikola breathed a small sigh of relief. It was faint, but it was there, and it was going to be there for a long time if he had anything to say about it. She wasn't out of danger yet though: she was cold, and she was bleeding.

His jacket would suffice to keep her warm-ish for a short while, but he needed to stop her head bleeding with something...

"Honestly Helen, this is my best shirt." Despite his words, Nikola didn't feel an ounce of regret as he took off said item and wrapped it around Helen's head. "I just wish you were awake to see the sacrifices I'm making for you." That would have to do. He was no doctor, but as soon as he could he was going to get her to one.

Carefully, oh so carefully, Nikola scooped Helen into his arms, spooled his jacket around her, making sure to keep her injured arm and leg as still as possible, and stood up.

He could see the torches of the rescue party making their way towards the clearing, but there wasn't time to wait for them or pause to listen to all their stupid questions and tell them what was going on. Instead Nikola started running, calling out as he fled past:

"Found her. London."

He just hoped they understood the message.

The nearest Sanctuary was London, and he was running all the way there – planes just weren't fast enough.

TBC

**Anyone else noticed how I managed to get Helen dying and Nikola shirtless in the same fic? It wasn't planned, I swear** **XD**

**Feedback is loved, and feel free to point out spelling/grammar mistakes - I didn't check this one too thoroughly.  
**


	4. Hunting

**Sorry this took longer than I expected, but it also turned out longer than I expected...Oh, and it's all flashback :D If you haven't read much of my other stories you won't know that I _really_ love flashbacks ;)**

**A special thanks to all my reviewers - it means a lot to hear what you think.  
**

**I do not own Sanctuary *sigh* but the mistakes are all mine...unfortunately...**

**Some bits will seem a little odd, but they're meant to be like that. Enjoy :)  
**

Chapter 4 – Hunting

"_Yes Will...I'm fine...I'm at the hotel...no...yes...please do, and make sure Henry-yes...thank you..I promise to enjoy myself...bye."_

_Helen hung up with a sigh a relief. Sometimes Will was a little too protective for her liking. She knew that he was just trying to look out for her, making sure she didn't do anything too stupid, but every so often he would do something to infuriate her and she'd think about how she'd managed to survive for 157 years without him so it wasn't as if she couldn't look after herself._

_Although, now that she thought about it, Helen realised that there had always been someone else looking out for her, she just hadn't noticed. First it had been her father, trying to keep her from making the mistakes he had; then all of the Five – some more than others; her endless adoptees and finally her daughter. She'd never really realised before this moment just how much she relied on others._

_She'd always had someone – at some times more than someone, like back at Oxford with the Five. Nigel had been the one who kept her sane, grounded – sort of. John had reminded her that there were things outside of her little world, that life didn't always turn out how you expected, that there were things like hurt and __heartbreak__. James had been the one she could always go to for support – he was the one who would stick around, making sure that she was okay; he'd propped her up, kept her going, long after the others were gone. Nikola..._

_Well, she'd never really thought about it much. He'd always seemed like the one she couldn't trust, because she wasn't really all that sure of who he was, what his motivations were. Now she realised that wasn't true. Nikola had probably been the most straightforward of her friends; he wasn't afraid of showing the world that he was there and what he was capable of – it didn't always get him the merit he deserved – and maybe he was a bit of a show-off, but he could always make her smile. He wasn't truthful, or dependable, but you could always rely on him to be exactly what he seemed: he'd never pretend to care – if he didn't care, he would tell you. Although more recently she thought she'd started to see another side to Nikola, a deeper, sensitive side. Maybe he had been hiding behind a mask after all, maybe she'd misjudged him yet again...and why were her thoughts wondering down that path anyway?_

_Helen sighed: none of it mattered at the moment; right now she was completely alone, with only her own mind to keep her alive._

_The thought of why exactly she was alone brought a smile to her lips. Will had been bugging her about taking a holiday – almost none stop in fact: she'd finally given in and booked herself onto a commercial flight to England's Heathrow. Will had scowled at her, saying that having a holiday did not entail checking up on the London Sanctuary. Helen had quickly reassured him that she had no intention of going to London, but was much more interested in the rural south, which was in fact true. What she didn't tell him was that her interest lay not in the landscapes, but actually in something she believed to be living there. The creature itself – if her sources were to be trusted – was completely harmless and inconspicuous (looking like a tabby cat): with no threat to it or anyone else there had been no need for the Sanctuary network to get involved and seek it out, so she hadn't brought it up. However, she herself had been interested in a characteristic this abnormal might display: teleportation. This 'holiday' was providing her with the perfect excuse to check out this rumour for her own...research._

_And of course once she 'stumbled upon' this abnormal accidentally on her holiday – if the rumours turned out to be true and she could catch one – she would contact the London Sanctuary and have them send someone over to pick them up, after which she could have the both of them shipped back to Old City. It would be one more holiday just sadly ruined by her job, and Will would stop nagging her for a little while._

_It wasn't the best plan, and Helen knew it; she had very little equipment with her and no back-up. If something went wrong..._

_But that wasn't going to stop her. If anyone asked why she could have brought several clichés to mind: _No pain, no game_...okay, she couldn't actually think of any others, but it still made the point. As much as she was loathe to admit it: this was _fun. _Almost made her want to be a spy...all the subterfuge and relying on your on wits to keep yourself in one piece..._

_A few hours later she had definitely changed her mind._

SANCTUARY

_Helen cursed her own stupidity: she'd forgotten her damn flashlight and now it was getting dark. She'd bought one of those smaller ones designed for night time reading at a shop, but it was absolutely useless when trekking through England's surprisingly many forests, so she'd resorted to using her phone to light her way. Oh, and her phone had no signal..._

_There was movement to her left._

_Helen froze; slowly crouched down and reached for her backpack. It was probably just about dark enough to use the night vision goggles. She hadn't brought a flashlight but had brought her night vision goggles...she resisted the urge to laugh._

_The trees rustled to her right._

_Helen paused and turned her head slowly towards the sound._

_An animal screeched behind her._

_She didn't move for a minute. Another rustle on the right._

_Helen shut off the light from her phone, realising it was drawing attention and reached once more for her backpack, slipping it off her shoulders to the floor._

_A twig broke less than three metres in front of her._

_She bit her lip, trying to keep her breathing calm and ignoring her racing heartbeat. Sometime in the last minute the sun had completely set, leaving her stranded in the middle of a forest in the darkness, unable to see anything, surrounded by the unknown. There was no point in telling herself 'there's no such thing as monsters' because she knew better than anyone that that wasn't true._

_Why the hell had she come?_

_Another twig and a flash of red light reminded her._

_Another twig and a flash of pain made her forget._

SANTUARY

_Helen opened her eyes and looked around, but the images were blurred. She tried to assess her surroundings but found they wouldn't stay still. There was a prickly sensation along her back, and she was reminded of hedgehogs._

_Then the pain came flooding in._

_Helen winced; the constant movement was aggravating her leg wound – well, she assumed she had a leg wound because of the really annoying pain, but she couldn't see it to verify. Her right arm was aching too – she almost remembered shielding herself with it from...something. Worst of all though was her head; it kept bumping along the ground and her hair was getting caught in-_

_Wait...no...her hair was already caught._

_Reality came knocking: she was being dragged along by her hair by something, and she didn't think it was giving her a lift home. She'd lost her coat, gun, backpack and probably everything else somewhere along the way, and her head wound was making it hard to concentrate, so she probably had a concussion._

_Helen sighed; this was the last time she was ever sneaking off to chase rumours by herself._

_Next time she'd bring Henry._

SANTUARY

_The next time Helen woke up it was to find herself surrounded by lots of trees._

_Her whole body ached – some parts move than others. Helen figured that whatever damaged had been caused to her body was taking its toll, because she was having trouble remembering what was going on. _

_Strange flashes of red light kept erupting into her vision and she wondered if she needed glasses. She tried to push herself up with her arms but found that one of them wasn't responding particularly well._

_Hauling her arm into her chest – that would leave a stain – she wrenched her protesting body to its feet and immediately stumbled into a tree. Turned out one of her legs wasn't working properly either._

_Balancing herself against the rather handy trunk she looked around._

_She was in a forest – which would account for the trees – but she had no idea where; she would need to find somewhere she could see the stars to figure that one out: a clearing maybe.  
_

_About five metres away there was a very interesting sight. A lot of cats kept attacking a big wolf-like thing, and then bursting into red smoke..._

_Reality came knocking._

_Again._

_She'd have to get a doorbell, and maybe a butler._

_Wait; she already had one of those, although he was really hairy._

_Crap: that was one nasty concussion._

_Helen's vision swam as she struggled to keep hold of her senses. The red flashing cats were the abnormals she had been tracking down – so that meant she was somewhere in south England, but the wolf with really long claws...was probably what had attacked her._

_She was being saved by a bunch of cats._

_Helen laughed: the wolf-thing looked over._

_Helen swore, and started to run...well..._hobble_ away._

SANTUARY

_Helen crashed into a tree._

"_Shit." That had not been a good idea._

_She looked up; there were small glimpses of sky through the overhanging branches, but not enough for...something._

"_Dammit."_

_Why couldn't she remember?_

_She set off again, a slow, limping walk her only means of transportation, but even at two miles per hour her body was protesting._

_How long had she been going for?_

_There was a roar from behind her – she didn't dwell on what could have caused it, and kept moving._

SANTUARY

_From the position of the sun Helen judged it to be about four o'clock in the afternoon. She lifted her left arm to shield her from its rays and saw that her watch confirmed the time._

_There was bark digging into her back. She looked over her shoulder, ignoring the way her vision blurred and head pounded and saw..._

A tree?

_She was in a forest, and she was looking for the stars._

_Helen frowned. Why was she looking for stars in a forest?_

_She got up, very slowly, and staggered forwards._

"_Onwards and upwards."_

_If she was looking for stars the sky would be a good place to start...if only she could find some._

SANTUARY

_A clearing._

_That's what she had been looking for, hadn't it?_

_No...she'd been looking for stars..._

_Stars were in the sky, sky was upwards, in a forest a clearing was the only place you got an unobstructed view of the sky..._

_So yes, she had been looking for a clearing._

_Helen breathed a sigh of relief and stumbled into the middle of the clearing, where she promptly collapsed._

"_Ow..."_

_She looked up._

"_Damn."_

_That could be a problem._

"_Stupid daylight."_

_When hunting for stars always make sure it's night time._

_Helen gently lowered herself into a more comfortable position, almost as if she was sunbathing. Lying on her back would put the least amount of pressure on her injured arm and leg, and if she didn't move that pesky headache wouldn't bother her._

_She was actually rather comfortable, which meant keeping still wouldn't be a problem._

_Yep; she could quite happily lie here for a while, and wait for the stars._

_After all, there was only about five more hours to go._

TBC

**So...is it worrying that I really enjoyed writing this chapter? Wait, don't answer that.**

**Reviews, concrit are adored; thanks for reading.  
**


	5. Alive

**Sorry about the wait, computer died. There should only be one more chapter of this part of the fic - and then there's part 2!**

**Disclaimer for this chapter and all future chapters: I don't own Sanctuary or any of it's characters. Unbeta'd. Enjoy.**

Chapter 5 - Alive

Helen woke up, but didn't open her eyes. She wasn't sure where she was – although she was definitely lying on a bed; an uncomfortable one, so probably in a hospital, but living for a century and a half made one cautious. There were people in the room; two by the sounds of it, and they were whispering...loudly.

"Did you know he turned up half naked?" Helen tried not to cough in surprise: that was certainly not what she'd been expecting.

"Who?" The voices were young, female, she thought.

"Him – in the chair."

"You know that's Nikola Tesla right? The vampire?" So Nikola was in the room too...

There was an intake in breath. "That's him!"

"Shush – you'll wake him up."

"Sorry." There was a pause.

"Which half?"

Some giggling. "Top – duh."

"What was it like?"

"Well, from what I could see he's seriously hot, but most of him was covered up."

"By what? I thought you said he didn't have a shirt on?"

"He didn't; but he had Dr. Magnus in his arms."

"Aww...that's so sweet."

"Well, not really, as she was like bleeding all over him from that head wound."

"Ah..."

"And then her arm and leg were bleeding too – you could tell even through his coat."

"His coat?"

"Yeah, he'd tucked it around her, but it was covered in blood too. It looked like she'd lost _a lot._"

"She had: nobody thought she'd make it. Probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been for him."

"Tesla? Why, what'd he do?"

"You don't know? He gave her his blood: you know how they have the same vampire blood or something like that? Gave her enough to keep her alive."

"How much had she lost?"

"Dunno – but he gave he enough that he passed out."

"Wow...that's kinda..._sweet_."

"Shush!"

"What?"

"If either of them hear you – you're dead."

_Too late._

"Oh come on; it's been a week since he brought her here; doc isn't sure she's actually going to wake up. And he's been watching over her since he woke up; this is the first time he's slept – he's not waking anytime soon."

Helen resisted the urge to laugh: Nikola didn't sleep, which meant he had heard every word they'd said; he wouldn't even have needed his super-hearing considering _she_ could hear them...although it did mean that he could probably tell that she was awake because of the difference in her breathing, and would therefore be aware that she'd heard every word also...

Suddenly Helen didn't feel like laughing anymore. Maybe she should stop this conversation before either of them heard anymore.

"Still..."

"He must really lo-"

Helen threw herself forwards as she opened her eyes, as if she'd just woken from a traumatic experience – which she actually had. Unfortunately she'd forgotten about that lovely head wound that she'd apparently almost died from, and someone had the lights turned up full blast, so her fake shock-of-waking-up-gasp, became a real oh-god-it-hurts-gasp.

Immediately there were hands on her shoulders, gently lowering her back to the bed. She caught sight of Nikola's face swimming around in front of her, but couldn't tell if the expression on his face was concerned, resigned, or plain old smug. _Was it possible to be all three?_ Past him were two very shocked looking people: young adults, neither more than twenty one, both female, both staring. Helen figured they were more likely residents than staff.

"Helen, close your eyes." Helen (for once) did as she was told, and didn't even flinch as Nikola's cool hand pressed against her forehead. "Well, at least you're not burning up." He left his hand there. "You two – go get a doctor."

Helen heard two sets of footsteps hurriedly leave the room – running by the sounds of it. Nikola's hand moved finally, and Helen heard a switch being flicked.

"Be glad I didn't simply short-circuit the lights."

Helen hummed; for some reason not opening her eyes.

"You know you completely deserved that." His breath ghosted along her ear.

If her eyes had been open she would have blinked in surprise at how close he sounded. "Deserved what?"

"That nasty headache you so obviously now have."

Helen smiled. "Probably."

"Is that why you've still got your eyes closed? I turned the lights out you know."

"I know." Slowly Helen cracked her eyes open, and this time did blink in surprise at how close Nikola's face actually was.

"How much did you hear?" He asked, moving backwards to sit on the edge of her bed.

"I'm pretty sure those girls have a _huge_ crush on you."

Nikola rolled his eyes at her.

"I'm much too old for them." He smiled at her cheekily before becoming serious again. "What else did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you saved my life: in the process of which you gave up lots of your normally coveted blood, passed out, wrecked your coat, sacrificed your shirt, and somehow got all the way to London carrying me. How on earth did you manage it?"

"Well, most of it was easy – including running to London with your deadweight in my arms. But the shirt – now _that_ was the hard part: almost broke my heart." He put a hand on said organ to demonstrate.

Helen went to glare, remembered her headache and thought better of it. She settled for sticking her tongue out: something she was sure she wouldn't have done if she wasn't so doped up on drugs. She looked to the side of her bed and found..._damn_...so she wasn't doped up on _too_ many drugs...

Nikola grinned at her response before moving back to his chair. Once seated his expression became thoughtful, and Helen could tell there was something he wanted to ask. When he didn't speak for several minutes, only glancing at her suspiciously from the corner of his eyes, she got fed up with waiting.

"What is it?"

"What is what?"

Helen pursed her lips.

"What is it you want to ask me?"

"Oh, that." Nikola pursed his lips. "What happened?"

"I was attacked by an unknown abnormal. I thought Will had briefed you on the situation."

"Please Helen; we both know that you are never unexpectedly overwhelmed."

"I was on holiday-"

Without warning Nikola jumped out of his chair and started pacing along the room; unbridled fury pasted across his features. Helen gulped and shrunk backwards into the bed, wondering just what had brought out such a reaction.

"You don't take holidays." Nikola turned and waggled a finger at her, his mouth contorted into a pained grimaced. "You can't lie to _me_ Helen – I've known you too long." Despite the force and emotion behind his words, his voice never raised to a shout. "What were you doing that was _so _important you couldn't tell anyone?"

"I..." Helen clamped her mouth shut: _who was he to talk about not telling people important things?_ Anger built up quickly within her before exploding out of her mouth. "That's none of your business! I don't pry into everywhere you go, everything you do – and maybe I damn well should because things never seem to end well for me or my Sanctuary! How dare you criticise me! _I'm_ not the one who almost always has secret intentions, who never tells anyone _anything_ unless you can see an immediate benefit for yourself-"

While she was talking Nikola had paced forward and leant forward with both hands on her bed. He cut her off abruptly.

"YOU ALMOST DIED!"

Helen stared. It had been a long time since she'd heard Nikola shout, _really_ shout: she'd forgotten how powerful his voice was.

They suddenly lapsed into silence, and Helen became aware that they were no longer alone. She snapped her head to the doorway at the same time as Nikola, just in time to see half a dozen people stood in the doorway, Will, the doctor and the Nikola's two fangirls included. All had expressions of shock, fear or just downright puzzlement on their faces: they'd obviously been there a little while.

She watched Nikola tense, storm over to the farthest corner of the room and throw himself into a chair there; the scowl on his face _threatening_ anyone to come anywhere near him. It looked very much like he was sulking.

Helen resisted the urge throw her hands up in despair, and turned back towards their crowd.

"What?" Her tone daring anyone to risk the obviously frightening consequences and comment on what they'd just witnessed.

No one did.

Helen's mind suddenly backtracked.

"Wait: I've been asleep for a week?"

TBC

**Couldn't resist the fangirls XD **

**Feedback is loved even more than cookies.**

**Please can someone suggest a better title for this chapter? I'm not keeping it as 5 Alive...which I also don't own...  
**


	6. Talking

**So here's the last part of the first half. There will now be a break whilst I get up to date with other fics, and actually plan out (properly) the next bit.**

**Slight reference to a certain book series in here, not meant in either a positive or a negative way.  
**

**Just realised I didn't put this in earlier - this half is set early season two, but you've probably figured that out by now. And for the sake of this story, Nikola and Helen are the same blood type. Please excuse any mistakes, my sudden change of POV style, and enjoy :D  
**

Chapter 6 – Talking/How it always ends

"Just give me some painkillers and I'll be fine." Helen was starting to get frustrated with Dr. Patrick Robson and his endless poking, questioning and doubting. He'd also accused her of lying about the pain at which just about everybody else in the room had rolled their eyes. London's green skinned Dr. Pat was obviously the only one who hadn't heard of Helen Magnus' indomitable will.

"You're already on painkillers." Dr. Pat gestured to the IV he hadn't let her take out of her arm yet.

"In that case I'll be fine."

Nikola watched the proceedings with grudging amusement from his corner, and saw that Will seemed to be doing the same from his place by Helen's bed side. After the Doctor had invaded Helen's room the others had all come piling in, the two girls from earlier shooting him embarrassed – although not as much as he thought they should be – glances, whilst everyone else made certain not to look at him. Included in that little group apart from them and Dr. Pat had been Will, Henry and Decking – _still_ couldn't remember his name – but Nikola was surprised to see that the hairy manservant hadn't shown up. Miss Freelander hadn't turned up either, but that didn't bother him so much – he didn't think that her and Helen were on the best of terms.

Helen too had noticed the absences, but hadn't in fact expected them to be there – someone had to look after her Sanctuary after all. What had surprised her was that both Will and Henry had been at London waiting for her, but after some enquiries she found out that Henry had just flown in yesterday to pick up some equipment, and would be heading back later today. He'd enquired about the abnormal she'd been attacked by, and what they were going to do about it as it had so far evaded capture. She'd told him that they were to leave it alone as it wasn't dangerous - which of course had got her many disbelieving stares.

Decklan had left shortly after he'd found out she was fine – by her own prognosis she had noticed; Dr. Pat had been protesting even then – and Henry had followed to catch his flight, promising to see her soon (something else that the foolish doctor was currently protesting about). That left herself, Nikola – who still hadn't moved, Dr. Pat – who still hadn't shut up, Will - who was staying silent, and the two girls – who were now openly staring at Nikola. Helen couldn't stop the groan that escaped her lips at the sight: the man did not need his ego inflating anymore – it was already miles too big.

The Doctor suddenly broke off from his tirade, not that she'd been listening. Helen looked up to see him glaring at the girls, who were also being grinned at by Nikola.

"Girls, shoo! Or you can have those flu jabs early!"

The girls looked at each other, looked at the glaring doctor, looked at Helen and then finally at Nikola (who waved) before fleeing.

In the brief silence Helen took the opportunity to turn to her protégée.

"Will, tell Declan I'll be going home tomorrow." Will raised an eyebrow before reluctantly nodding and hurrying out of the room.

Dr. Pat looked momentarily dumbstruck. Unfortunately it didn't last for long.

"Just what do you think you're doing! _I'm_ in charge here, not you! And _I_ will say when you can go home; not _you_!"

Helen just looked at him, her face saying quite clearly that if he truly believed anything he'd just said then he was an idiot.

"I've been away from my Sanctuary for more than a week: I'll be going home tomorrow."

Nikola watched as the poor doctor turned an interesting shade of purple.

"Now you listen here young lady!"

Nikola winced, but then had to bite back a chuckle at the expression Helen's face had taken on: something between patronising, vaguely amused and downright indignant. It was made even worse by the fact that the doctor wasn't even going grey.

He tuned out the following argument; well, he said argument, but it was really just Helen digging Dr. Pat's grave, with the occasional help from the man himself. It was really quite fascinating how Helen could do that to people: turn their own words against them, manipulate their actions, their minds. She'd done it to him more than once, much to his chagrin. She did it a lot at Oxford to the students, professors and lecturers alike; friend or foe, she'd obviously enjoyed making them stutter and stumble, and Nikola had been more than happy to laugh when she did, except when she did it to him of course: then, it wasn't quite so amusing.

A quiet cough from the doorway brought Nikola from his thoughts and stopped Helen burying the poor Dr. Pat. They all looked over to see a young woman in a lab coat standing nervously there.

"Dr Pat?" He looked over at her, jaw still tense. "You're needed in Med One immediately." With her message delivered she scurried off, not even pausing to return the smile Nikola had been giving her.

Dr Pratt – Nikola was insanely pleased with that one – had taken one step towards the door before freezing. He looked suspiciously at Helen.

"I...I...I...don't move."

Helen smiled. "Don't worry; Nikola will look after me – won't you Nikola?" She turned to see the man had slumped once again in his chair, this time backwards with his face towards the ceiling.

He hummed. Silence followed, silence without the distinctive sound of footsteps that should have been there. He looked up to see the younger man staring at him, obviously expecting something more.

"I'll look after her." Nikola rolled his eyes but the feet stayed put. "Someone's dying – go save them."

That did it: Dr. Pat paced out of the room without another word or backwards glance.

Nikola looked at Helen. Helen looked at Nikola. The temperature in the room immediately dropped several degrees as their last 'conversation' came back to them.

Nikola was the first to break the sudden silence.

"You could have died." It was an echo of how they'd left things earlier, but now there was no anger in his voice which was barely above a whisper, only drifting over to Helen's ears because of the lack of any other sound.

"I know." The reply was just as quiet. "But you wouldn't let me."

"Did you expect me to?"

"I didn't expect you to stay."

"And yet here I am."

"Thanks." The corners of her mouth twitched upwards briefly.

"Well, I couldn't exactly leave you in the hands of Dr. Pratt could I?" That got a bigger smile from her, and Nikola couldn't help but reply in kind.

Silence fell again though and all the levity drained away through a metaphorical plughole, gurgling as it went. Helen bit her lip as Nikola leaned back in his chair, running his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Why did you go?" Helen wouldn't meet his gaze, refusing to answer. Nikola sighed before playing a card he'd rather not. "I saved your life Helen – don't I deserve to know why?"

She still wouldn't look up. Nikola had almost given up hope of an answer when she finally replied.

"Teleportation."

Nikola's head shot up. "What?"

"You heard me. These creatures - they could teleport." She looked up to see he'd got up and was walking towards her bed.

"Helen...I thought you'd accepted that Ashley's gone?"

"I..." Helen looked down again, embarrassed. Nikola picked up on it.

"Oh, I get it. Still trying to cure Jackie boy are you?" The disgust was palpable in his voice, causing Helen's anger to flare up once again. She looked up at him, eyes blazing.

"How could I not? I _failed_ him Nikola! I should have been able to save him; or at least recognise what was going on! People _died_ because I thought I was in love! I owe it to him, and to them, to find out what happened to him, and see if there's a permanent cure!"

Nikola had quickly realised that her anger wasn't directed at him, or even at John, but rather at herself.

"So you don't think he's actually come to his senses?" Helen kept worrying her bottom lip; something some part of Nikola wasn't going to admit looked quite cute.

"I wish I could but..." she trailed off, sure that Nikola would understand.

He did. Moving the rest of the way over to the bed – which he was quite surprised she hadn't moved out of yet – he sat down beside her and put one of his hands on hers, the other under her cheek to force her to meet his eyes.

"Helen, it isn't your fault, never was. Everyone else knows that, it's only you that's left to convince."

Helen tried to shake her head, but found that that was almost impossible to do when someone was holding your face. She brought her hand up to move his, but instead found herself just holding it in place. Nikola was the one that spoke again.

"Helen, I need you to promise me you won't do something like this again."

This time Helen did shake her head, pulling both their hands away and into her lap as she did so.

"You know I can't do that; just like you can't promise me not to do anything reckless." Nikola grinned at that.

"You know me." Then his face became serious again. "However Helen, I can't be killed – you can."

"I'm doing alright so far."

"Really? Because by my count you've almost died at least fifty times on thirty nine separate occasions, actually died three times, and those are just the ones I know about."

Helen smiled. "I'll be more careful next time."

Nikola leaned closer, looking directly into her eyes. Helen bit back a gasp at the intensity or his gaze, the raw power that she could see swimming in their depths. It sent a shiver down her spine. She could feel his breath starting to ghost along her cheeks.

"You'd better be. I won't always be able to fly in and save you."

"Really? And here I thought you had nothing better to do with your time."

"Well, I get the odd job here and there, invent something to baffle the masses for a few decades, clear out casinos for a few million, pick up rich and beautiful ladies." Helen scoffed; Nikola leaned closer. "Seriously. You're not the only gorgeous damsel in distress I have to rescue; although they're normally more...grateful."

Helen turned her head towards Nikola's ear. "I think you'll find..." she whispered, "that I can be _very_ grateful."

It was Nikola's turn to shiver. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." She pulled back slightly. "Now where are my clothes?" Nikola cast his eyes downwards, taking in Helen's hospital scrubs.

"Tut tut. You shouldn't lead a man on like that; it's very unladylike."

"I wasn't 'leading you on'." Helen leant forward, brushing her lips against his cheek before pulling back further. "There, see. Now go get me my clothes."

Nikola pulled back and grinned. "So demanding – I like that."

"Go." He jumped off the bed, bowing low.

"Your wish is my command milady."

Helen couldn't help but smile as he swept out of the room.

He returned moments later, carrying...

"Those aren't my clothes."

"You don't say. You see Helen, you're clothes were torn, tatty and covered in blood – you couldn't possibly wear them, even if they hadn't been binned. So, I got you the best I could do."

He dumped the clothes on the bed next to her, where she picked them up to examine them.

"Jeans?" she asked incredulously, holding up the offending item. "And...what's this?"

"A shirt."

"Yes Nikola – a _man's dress shirt_."

"Well I didn't exactly go shopping for a woman did I?"

"I have clothes upstairs!"

"Then you can go get them as soon as you're done here; which judging by the fact you're ripping that IV out of your arm I'm assuming will be very soon."

Her task complete, Helen hopped out of the bed and grudgingly picked up the clothes Nikola had brought for her; it wasn't as if she'd be wearing them long anyway. She looked at Nikola significantly. He didn't move.

"Turn your back."

"Why?"

"I need to get changed."

"Oh right, that little thing called modesty – I get it. Honestly, it's not as if I haven't seen it all before."

"Yes, it is. Back. Now."

Nikola rolled his eyes but did as he was asked. A minute passed in silence.

"Stop peeking!"

"I'm not. Are you done yet?"

"I'm done."

Nikola turned back to see Helen doing up the buttons on his shirt – well, it wasn't really his shirt, he'd only bought it recently, never worn it. She didn't do it up to the top, leaving the last few undone.

He studied her carefully. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, ruffled from sleep but still a lot neater than it should have been. The shirt suited her, in an ill-fitting, baggy sort of way, and he thought it strange that he should like the look of her wearing one of his shirts, almost as if he were her boyfr- Nikola pushed that thought away and carried on: he liked the shirt, but the jeans looked plain odd. They were straight, loose men's jeans that he'd bought as a joke, but also because he was tired of wrecking so many suits. In fact he'd ditched his particular outfit next door – someone's office, but they were never in – as he'd decided he wouldn't actually wear them: neither of the items felt like _him._

"Stop gawking."

"I'm not gawking, I'm staring; there is a difference you know.

"Oh really?"

"Yes really. Now Helen, if that's all, I really must be off."

"Already? I thought you were meant to be looking after me?"

Nikola raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't need looking after?"

"I thought you thought I did, otherwise you wouldn't have flown halfway across the world to rescue me."

Nikola sighed; he hated Helen's particular brand of infuriating logic, especially when it made perfect sense. "Yes, I did, at great personal cost to myself I might add, and I've already spent much too long away from my work."

"So take a holiday."

"_I_ will take a holiday when _you_ take a holiday." He cut her off before she could interrupt. "A real one, not a pretending-to-take-a-holiday-to-track-down-a-possibly-mythical-creature-that-could-cure-my-evil-ex-without-any-back-up kind." He sighed at the downcast look on her face at his words. "Besides Helen, I have a world to conquer and a species to raise from the dead, and although you might object that I have eternity and I don't need sleep we both know it's only a matter of time before someone comes up with a way to kill or contain me, and whoever heard of evil geniuses taking a break? Jeesh Helen, you wouldn't want me to break a stereotype would you?"

Helen couldn't resist a smile at that.

"As long as you don't sparkle." That put a look of affront on the vampire's face.

"Never."

He headed towards the door: he wasn't going to say goodbye and they both knew it – it just wasn't his style.

"Thanks...Polly."

Nikola paused at the threshold.

"Your welcome." And then he was gone, shoes echoing down the hallway, and Helen wondered what tragedy would have to befall them next before they would see each other again. She hated herself for it, but she couldn't help but hope that whatever it was, it would happen soon.

**End of Part 1**

**I can't say when the second part will be started, sorry, just depends on what happens.**

**Feedback = very happy me :D**


	7. Waiting

**I know its been a while, sorry, can't be helped. Updates will be irregular and after tomorrow you'll have to wait three weeks - once again, can't be helped.**

**Slightly tied in GW Teslen September theme as I don't think I'll be writing a separate fic for that - sorry.**

**Thank you so much for the brilliant reviews - I hope you're still with me and that you'll like this.  
**

_Part two begins_

Waiting

If Helen was honest with herself, she really hadn't seen it coming: Nikola was mortal again. At the time she'd been so shocked she hadn't even thought about it, but later, after she had almost stopped pulling her hair out over finding a way to reverse his de-vamper, she realised that she'd been an absolute fool.

Helen cursed herself. _She_ _should_ have seen that coming: she had always been the one who thought things through and kept things manageable, whilst he had always come up with wild ideas that made no sense to most people but actually worked. It annoyed Helen that this time she hadn't realised the risks – not that she could have done much about it being tied up and all – but she hadn't even considered the _possibility_, even if it was so glaringly obvious. Nikola had made a device to convert Source Blood vampires back to their human state – Source Blood vampires included Nikola. If it had been anyone else she would have accused them of making the same mistake she had, but Nikola had long since become used to his immortality; thinking he was untouchable was second nature after a while. Now it seemed like his complacency had affected her too: or maybe she'd just wanted to believe that she would never be alone.

Whatever it was, she'd been an idiot, and she'd never forgive herself.

Soon after she'd realised that she had also come to the conclusion that there was nothing to be done about reversing the effects of Nikola's handiwork. At least, there wasn't at the moment – nothing jumped out at her, but she could still hope that something would turn up if she watched from the corner of her eye.

Several more hours of staring at screens and down microscopes, and a slightly revealing conversation with Will later, Helen had confronted Nikola about it. She'd tried to be light-hearted, and luckily he'd soon joined in – even if his eyes didn't shine quite as bright as they used to – and the evening had been pleasant. His delight at finding out he was magnetic had made her think that maybe everything would be alright after all. When he'd started slurring his speech she'd sent him to his room – and didn't that just make him sound like a naughty little schoolboy? He'd hugged her goodnight, placing a gentle kiss on her cheek before he left. At the time she'd thought it was because of the wine, maybe because he was feeling vulnerable, but when she'd found his room empty the next morning she knew that wasn't the case.

Nikola had fled again after all that had happened to him the night before, and Helen found that no matter how much she tried, she couldn't blame him. It was what he always did after all, and this experience had a much more devastating effect than those before.

For a while, just like some of the stories, they were both going to live forever: the Source Blood letting them share their eternities. Now, ironically it seemed – or maybe not ironically; those definitions just wouldn't stop changing – that _he_ was Castor and _she_ was Pollux. Now _he_ was the one that was going to die, and _she_ would have to be the one to save him.

After all, it wasn't as if he had anyone else.

SANCTUARY

Nikola wasn't quite sure what he was doing. Granted, he was a genius who could often come up with brilliant plans off the top of his head, but that still didn't mean he knew exactly what was going on. Like now, for example.

Nikola stared upwards at the strange looking wall and wondered when it had got there. He vaguely remembered running into it at some speed, which would probably account for why it was up there, and he was on the floor, but he couldn't quite recall...

"Ah."

Lucky that those cave paintings were so distinctive.

Reaching around to his inside jacket pocket, he picked up his phone – undamaged despite all it had been through – and scrolled through the contacts. Despite the masses of connections he had, there was only one name on his mind. Only one person who wouldn't condemn him, whom he trusted enough to help him with this, who had the ability and inclination to aid him in the first place...

He just hoped he had enough signal.

SANCTUARY

Helen sighed as she finally flopped down onto a comfortable chair in the corner of one of her rooms. Despite the fact that she'd promised herself an early night, and she'd promised Will she'd take it easy, she'd ended up working even later than usual. So late in fact that it was actually halfway through the next day. It wasn't as if she'd worked non-stop though: she'd taken a few breaks and had a two hour nap whilst waiting for some test results to come back, and she had got through a lot of work. Enough work to give herself a break now for the rest of the day.

Helen smiled: it wasn't often she could stop working with a clean conscience.

She already had the evening planned out: it hadn't taken long, she did the same thing most times (most times being the once or twice a year she actually did this). She would take a book off the shelf – something she'd grown up with - still new to her although now considered a classic - and then curl up in bed for a couple of hours with it. If she drifted off, which was quite likely, her alarm clock was set for five, at which point she would get up and go to her kitchen. The Sanctuary had several kitchens, being such a large building - the residents could take their pick; but there was one kitchen that Helen alone knew about, and it was there that she would go. Then for once she'd cook herself a nice meal, a full and uninterrupted meal (unless the world was ending) and then go back to bed with a tub of ice cream and watch a movie or two.

The last time she'd actually managed to do this without interruption had been at least two years ago, and so she was looking forward to some peace and quiet.

Something beeped.

Helen growled: she'd forgotten to turn her phone off.

Now she was faced with a dilemma. As she knew that someone was trying to contact her she had two options. 1: pick up her phone and hope that it wasn't going to be something important. 2: pretend she hadn't had her phone on in the first place.

In actual fact there was only really one option, because Helen knew that option 2 would just leave her fretting for the rest of the evening anyway.

Helen walked over to her desk, picked up her phone, and stared. The text message was the last thing she would have expected.

_Dear Helen,  
I find myself in need of your assistance (as much as it pains me to admit it).  
Come immediately my location; I think I may have found some of Henry's relatives.  
Nikola xxx_

_PS: Come ALONE._

Following the text was a string of co-ordinates, which Helen immediately searched up. She looked over the words again as the page was loading: Henry had accidentally nearly blown up the system, so it was taking revenge by being slow. Helen could see her night in sliding swiftly out of her grasp: even if she could have refused Nikola's 'plea' for help, she would never be able to saite her curiosity over his apparent discovery – which was obviously why he'd put it in there.

Helen sighed, and wondered what on earth Nikola had been up to in-

"_Tasmania?"_

She pursed her lips, and went to get her gun.

SANCTUARY

His task complete, Nikola settled back down, sprawling himself on the floor, for once unmindful of creasing his clothing. The soft hair made a rather comfortable mattress, and he knew that if he wasn't careful he could easily slip off to sleep, but it just wouldn't do to have Helen arrive to find him snoring – _not_ that he snored.

Turning his gaze upwards he realised that the night sky was visible through the hole in the ceiling his entry had caused. Strangely enough he had an unobstructed view of the stars from where he lay; maybe the trees were making up for their earlier behaviour.

As coincidence would have it two very distinctive stars – to him at least – were twinkling directly in his view. Mentally joining the dots that made up the twins, Nikola noted once more that one of them had much longer legs than the other, and a conversation he'd had with his 'twin' sprung to mind. It was shortly after the first world war and they'd both managed to sneak off for one night

"You know," Helen had said, "Pollux has got much longer legs."

He'd commented that that was because he was taller, and she'd laughed, saying that the heavens didn't care, and that because they were twins they were supposed to be the same.

"Seems like the heavens miscalculated then." Was his response.

There was silence for a minute before Nikola spoke again.

"You know it almost looks like Castor is proposing, maybe they were secretly lovers."

"Nikola! They were brothers!"

Nikola smiled. "Hmmm..."

"In any case, I'm not getting down on one knew and asking you to be my wife!"

He'd gone to nudge her shoulder but missed, instead elbowing her in the ear. Helen had burst into laughter and told him what a poor shot he was. That got him complaining and she's started calling him Polly until he shut up.

Now Nikola wondered whether he really was Polly. He wasn't immortal anymore, but Helen still was. Did that mean they'd switched places? Helen did in fact have rather nice long legs...

The top half of Orion was just visible. Orion was another constellation Helen had associated herself with: maybe the stars were trying to tell them something. He just hoped that Helen didn't end up meeting the same end as the Hunter. It was something he'd always feared; that one day Helen would become so sure of herself, so powerful that someone would go looking for the cracks in her shield and defeat her. Maybe it would be a scorpion; some abnormal that she wasn't quite prepared for, that she foolishly went after. It had happened before, many times, once more quite recently if his sources were accurate. One day her immortality – if you could call it that really – would be the death of her. It almost had been when he'd gone to England to rescue her.

After all, she could still die.

His phone beeped: new text message.

_On my way._

_Helen xx_

Only two kisses, but that was still one more than last time, and this time he hadn't bribed or stolen any.

Confirmation received, Nikola settled down to wait: there were only a few more hours until the sun came up.

TBC

**So, part two has started - I'd love to know what you think. This wasn't checked over very thoroughly so please forgive the mistakes, and feel free to point them out.**

**Oh, and I know nothing about Tasmania, I just needed somewhere quite far away.**

**Next chappie is the flashback! And will clear some things up :)  
**


	8. Mistakes

**Apologies for the massive wait: I have excuses but they would just bore you, so on with the story.**

**Oh, and I lied about the flashbacks :)  
**

Chapter 8 - Mistakes

Ten hours later Nikola was still staring upwards, but this time at the barrel of a gun pointing between his eyes. Now that he thought about it, maybe this hadn't been the best resting place after everything that had happened today.

The man behind the gun was still ranting about how Nikola had ruined all his evil plans, and how he was going to very much enjoy taking his revenge.

Fortunately – or maybe unfortunately – Nikola couldn't hear a word he was saying, as his heart was currently trying to escape its bony prison, and was deafening him at the same time.

_Thump-thump_

_Thump-thump_

Whilst Nikola was glad to be reminded that he was actually still alive, he would have preferred to actually be able to hear what was in store for him so he could concoct some marvellous plan and escape.

However the unwavering gun kept reminding him that that was _very _unlikely.

His phoned vibrated silently in his pocket, and Nikola tried not to squirm as it sent unwelcome shivers down his spine. He wondered who could be texting him. The most obvious answer was Helen, and he wondered if she had arrived yet. Nikola felt a small tendril of hope worm its way around his still-wildly beating heart, soothing it slightly. If she got here soon he might still escape uninjured.

The man came to the end of his monologue and glared at Nikola, who was trying his best to keep his witty comments to himself, because angering the man with a gun isn't generally the best way to stay alive.

It was at times like these – which happened quite often actually – that Nikola most missed being a vampire. The whole superior thing was great, and it had been nice to be a part of something, to feel like he belonged and had a purpose in life; the nails were cool also, but what he really missed was the freedom. Being immortal meant you could be yourself; do whatever you wanted and screw the consequences, because hey, it wasn't like they could actually kill you. Now however it was a very different story. Now he actually had to plan things out, and that had always been Helen's forte, not his. No more could he rush in and be guaranteed to come out unscathed, because now he was mortal once more, he could be hurt, and he could die.

The thought scared him, more than ever before. Last time he'd rescued Helen he'd been scared she'd leave him all alone (save Druitt); now it seemed that he would end up being the one who left, and Helen really would be the last of them, as even John had disappeared for the time being. More than anything now he didn't want that: Helen had been through enough as it was.

He took a deep breath and tried to look suitably scared at what he was facing. The problem was that although he may not have been a vampire anymore, being cocky and arrogant and going up against the world armed only with a grin and his wits was just part of who Nikola was: even if he was scared he was never going to show it.

And Nikola was still Nikola.

He'd raised an eyebrow before he could stop himself, and looked down/up his nose at the towering figure.

"Can I go now? I think I left the iron on."

The man glared. The gun lowered, and fired.

Pain exploded through his stomach.

Footsteps could be heard retreating after a few seconds, but Nikola wasn't listening, and even if he had been he wouldn't have been able to hear over the enormous racket someone was making.

There was lots of cursing, swearing and pained groans.

Nikola bit his lip and the noises stopped. He didn't bother to ponder it out, instead too busy ripping part of his shirt off and clutching it to his stomach. For once his entire mind was focused on one thing and one thing only: _pain._

Never again would he shoot a mortal now he knew how much it hurt them. Although he'd make an exception for the bastard who'd done it to him.

"Crap."

One more expletive burst out through Nikola's lips, and then there was darkness.

SANCTUARY

Helen had never loathed a flight any more so than she did the one she was currently on. Most people would have been quite content on the same flight: it was neither too hot nor too warm; there was no turbulence, and no noisy, smelly or rude passengers to worry about. In fact there were no other people in the surrounding area at all. The message had said to come alone, but Helen wasn't stupid. Nikola was still not to be trusted, and the last few times she'd gone monster hunting by herself it hadn't ended brilliantly.

So this time she'd brought Henry.

He was in the cockpit of the plane she'd borrowed from a friend (she'd stopped him being mauled by a snake – a completely normal one – and luckily for her he'd been overly grateful and filthy rich), probably marvelling at the state-of-the-art system. Helen hoped he wouldn't be allowed to try flying it; she didn't think the snake would cover the wreckage.

But Henry wasn't the source of her irritation either. No, that lay in the flight itself, or more precisely how long it was taking. Even with the highly advanced systems her journey would take at least ten hours, and they were barely half way through it.

Helen didn't like to not have anything to do for long periods of time - it meant she started thinking. But not thinking in a good way, like coming up with ideas for experiments or hypotheses: this was just plain old thinking, pondering, reminiscing. And Helen had a lot of things to think about.

Nikola was one of the subjects Helen found herself musing over an awful lot, especially since he was mortal now. For despite knowing the man for more than a century, he was still an enigma. Every so often she'd think she had him down pat, but then he'd do something completely contradictory, and throw all her assumptions out of the window and into the courtyard, leaving her to start all again with the puzzle. She didn't even have half the pieces.

She was currently wondering about what she'd find when the flight finally arrived – which was to be expected considering his message. With Nikola you could never tell what you'd find until you'd already found it, and even then you generally had to stare really hard or get him to explain it, which would of course amuse the man greatly, and make him think you an idiot for the next decade.

Helen sighed and willed the plane to go faster. There was no indication from his message that Nikola was in trouble, but it would be just like him to leave something like that out. One time she'd arrived at their meeting point only to find that the whole village was burning down after a vampire hunt had gone wrong. Just like then, Helen had a bad feeling about this whole thing.

Unfortunately she had no choice but to sit through the next seven hours, and think.

TBC

**Ignore errors in flight timings, and feel free to be confused - all will be revealed eventually.  
**


	9. Discovery

**So this is actually the second half of chapter 8, but I like it when the numbers are the same :)**

**Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews!**

Chapter 9 - Discovery

When they'd departed from the plane, Helen had been overly aware of the fact that although she'd hoped to be there soon, it had been over twelve hours since Nikola's appeal for help. Throughout the flight her apprehension had steadily grown, and she had texted Nikola just before they landed to tell him not to get into any trouble before she arrived.

His non-existent reply only served to make her more worried.

As they tracked through nature's gardens, following the GPS from Nikola's phone, Helen convinced herself that he was just being his usual self, not answering because he wanted to annoy her, or simply because he couldn't be bothered, and not because he couldn't.

Henry's feet were starting to tire when Helen suddenly saw something moving ahead: it didn't look like Nikola, and her instincts screamed at her to be careful. She stopped, quickly raising her hand to signal Henry to do the same, and hoped he wasn't completely engrossed in his tablet.

Luckily she heard his footsteps come to an abrupt halt behind her too, although judging by the breath on the back of her neck he had only just noticed in time to stop a collision.

Helen resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing that now was not the time, and instead slowly looked off to the left, to where she had spotted movement earlier.

Scanning the wooded area - or was it a forest? - for movement, she felt Henry shuffle away behind her, giving her more space to work. She was just beginning to think she'd imagined it when a figure leapt across their path. A tree exploded to their right, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot ringing out.

Helen jumped backwards, pulling her gun out at the same time, but unfortunately she leapt straight into Henry, who hadn't quite moved back far enough. They both crashed to the ground.

Helen was up and helping Henry to his feet in a matter of seconds, grabbing his tablet with the GPS tracker on as she did so.

"Go after him: I'd like him alive. I'll find Nikola."

Henry merely nodded before his features blurred into those of a wolf, and he'd disappeared after the armed man. Helen took a look at the tablet in her hands before she too was running, her thoughts racing only faster than her feet, slower than her heart.

The man had come from Nikola's direction.

The man had had a gun, and hadn't been afraid to use it.

Nikola was mortal...

Helen ran faster, without sparing another thought for the gunman or Henry, her thoughts only focused on getting to Nikola as fast as possible.

She didn't think about how foolish it'd been to send Henry off alone after someone who was armed and obviously dangerous.

She didn't think about how far away the plane was, how far away the nearest medical facility was, or how Henry had the first aid kit.

She didn't think about the way the few wayward branches were snagging at her skin, or how the birds had stopped chirping, or how stupid she must look racing through such a beautiful place – and it was daylight – as if there were wild animals chasing her.

She tried not to think about what she would find.

She hoped that she'd end up in the embarrassing situation of stumbling across Nikola, being out of breath and perspiring, whilst he sat calmly against a rock cleaning his already clean nails and looking as polished as ever. He would make some lewd remark about her being all hot and sweaty over him, she'd roll her eyes and look exasperated but be secretly laughing, and then they'd all go home and live happily ever-

Helen skidded to a halt just before the hole in the ground before her, and stared.

-_after._

"No..."

The word invaded her ears from somewhere, and it took Helen a moment to realise that her own lips had uttered it. Most of her mind was busy denying what she was seeing, and the rest of it was already reeling.

_He was just lying there._

There was a triumphant shout from someway off, and her ears recognised it as Henry's voice: she gave no indication that she had even heard it.

Helen took a step closer, sat down on the edge of the hole and slowly lowered herself down.

_There was so much blood._

She absently noticed the smooth hair on the floor, and the normally eye-catching wall opposite only registering on a very basic level.

She crouched down beside him, and suddenly she was on autopilot, the clinical, uncaring doctor taking control, shoving the shocked, emotional woman to the side.

It looked like he'd attempted to staunch the blood flow with part of his shirt, but he hadn't done a very good job. There was a pool of red spreading out from the partially ripped material, which itself was sodden. Helen pressed her own hand on top of his, applying pressure: a somewhat futile gesture considering the amount of blood loss already, but she wasn't going to give up yet.

A hand to his neck confirmed that he was indeed still alive, but his pulse was faint, erratic, and slowing down.

Helen tried to stop the tears that were suddenly pooling in her eyes from falling. Those that escaped were wiped hurriedly away by the back of her free hand before she got out her phone and dialled the emergency rescue services, and gave a slightly edited version of the situation. They promised to be there soon.

A few seconds after she'd hung up another tear was tracking a path over the contours of her face, but this time she didn't bother to stop it. Instead she slid to the floor and carefully pulled Nikola into her lap.

The fugitive tear dripped onto his closed eyelids.

She wished she didn't feel so useless; she wished there was something she could do. If they got him to a hospital maybe they'd be able to save him, but he'd lost so much blood, and she didn't know how much damage the wound had caused...

It didn't look good.

"_Magnus?"_

Henry's worried voice drifted into the caves from above, amplified spookily by the surrounding tunnels, and Helen looked up towards the sun, shining on what was otherwise a beautiful day.

"Down here..." she called back, uncaring whether her choked up voice was loud enough to reach him. She deliberately ignored the way it cracked.

"Doc?" Henry's voice was closer now: Helen looked back down towards the unmoving body in her lap as his silhouette blocked out the sunlight. _"Crap."_

At any other time she probably would have berated him about the appropriateness of such language, but Helen couldn't bring herself to care, not now.

Nigel was gone, James was gone, John was gone, and now...

"I'm so sorry Nikola."

Helen closed her eyes, and hoped.

_Not him...please...not him..._

TBC

**Mwhaha.**

**Flashback chapter next - promise - along with all the explanations.**

**As for what happens to poor Nikola...well, you'll just have to wait a bit longer :D  
**


	10. Unexpected

**I have stolen Tasmania and terraformed it to suit my own purposes. I apologise to anyone who lives there; I hope you don't mind :)**

**This is actually only half of this chapter, but I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to post again - might be 3 weeks, so it's being posted now.**

**FLASHBACK! YAY! I'm slightly obsessed by flashbacks :D**

Chapter 10 - Unexpected

_Nikola sighed and plodded onwards, regretting for the millionth time that he was no longer a vampire – it would have really helped to have better vision, or to be able to light up a load of bulbs, not that there were any handy light bulbs hanging from the trees anyway, and it wasn't quite dark enough for nature's own bulbs to start shining yet._

_All of which led Nikola to stumbling over an inconsiderately placed tree root and falling flat on his face._

"_Oww..." He got a mouthful of dirt: maybe speaking hadn't been the best idea._

_Sighing again, Nikola rolled over and picked himself up, glad that for once he'd foregone his usual dress sense in favour of something better suited to traipsing through the wilderness. (The fact that he'd passed through several cities and towns – one which could still be seen – on the way didn't make it any less a wilderness in Nikola's book. There were too many trees.)_

_He carried on walking for several minutes before yet another evil tree decided it was trip-up-the-poor-traveller-day. Only this time when he fell he kept falling as the ground suddenly gave way beneath him, and hit rock some feet below with a crash._

_SANCTAURY_

_Nikola looked down._

_Correction: Nikola opened his eyes and found that he was looking down._

_Groaning and muttering foully under his breath about the downfall of trees he rolled himself onto his back and spat the blood from his mouth._

_A quick wiggle of all his limbs provided confirmation that apart from a split lip the fall hadn't done him any damage, probably because a lot of the stone flooring was covered in some kind of soft, cotton wool like substance._

_Nikola frowned and brought some up to his eye level as he couldn't be bothered to sit up yet. It looked natural, and seemed to be made of fine strands, almost like hair..._

_He sat up abruptly and was thankful that his head didn't protest too much. Peering closer at the stuff he could see that it was a pale brown in the half-light, and that it was indeed hair, which meant that he was on the right track._

_Heaving himself upright he took the torch out of his backpack, absently noted the hole in his jeans – he didn't like them much anyway – and looked around._

_Nikola resisted the urge to snort. He was in a cave. He had just fallen through the floor of a cave containing exactly what he was looking for after he'd just begun to despair about being unlucky. It sounded like part of the plot line of a children's adventure book: hero goes on quest, hero almost gives up, hero accidentally stumbles across hidden entrance to secret lair..._

_Nikola frowned, the urge to laugh suddenly gone. The next step in the hero's adventure was usually getting captured by the evil bad guy who would then reveal their plan for world domination, and after that the hero would come up with some absurd plan to free themself and save the world. Although Nikola wasn't bothered by the coming up with absurd (yet marvellous) plan part – _genius remember? - _ he was rather concerned about the getting captured, evil bad guy and world domination bit, because that was meant to be what _he_ did - minus the getting caught part (although that tended to happen rather a lot anyway). _He_ was the evil bad guy plotting world domination; so how exactly had he ended up the hero?_

_All he needed now was a loyal companion and the picture would be complete._

_Nikola groaned and continued his perusal of the room. The small enclosure he was in was exactly what you'd expect of a cave: small, low ceiling, curving walls smoothed away by the ever-moving hands of time, cave paintings of..._

"_Whoa!"_

_So maybe that wasn't exactly what you'd expect._

_The painting covered the entirety of one wall, and was more the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a gallery than smeared on a wall. Although smeared would be completely the wrong word: the brushwork (or whatever-it-was-done-with-work) was immaculate, delicate and in some places extremely detailed. The colours were also unusual; colours you didn't see anywhere but on those paint colour charts were riddled throughout with several colours you couldn't put a name to and some more that Nikola could have sworn were glowing. But none of those things were why the picture was so shocking. No, that lay in the image itself._

_It began at the floor, roots of brown and orange seeping up as if from the earth below, and then twisting and culminating into trees and plants, which in turn bloomed into the most perplexing cityscape that no one had ever seen. The roads were also rivers, the fish and vehicles driving and swimming side by side. The blocks of flats tapered at the top before sprouting into mushrooms and the sky appeared to be dripping down the walls into traffic lights which were all purple. Each person in the scene had different features, and some in fact seemed to be something out of an old science fiction movie – what people imaged aliens would look like some years ago._

_Quite frankly it was the most beautiful thing Nikola had ever seen (save Helen). Or at least it would have been if someone hadn't pulled three sets of giant claw marks down the wall, and someone else hadn't written in big red letters over the top of it: TURN BACK NOW._

_The last bit made Nikola's jaw clench. Not only did it complete the threatening warning part in his kiddies' adventure story, but it looked suspiciously like the message was written in blood, which was not only creepy but also an unwanted reminder of everything he'd lost._

_Nikola sighed once before moving towards the only exit – save the ceiling – that the room had. It was just high enough for him to fit comfortably underneath its archway, and wide enough for about three of him to walk abreast; maybe two and a half. The tunnel it led to had the same dimensions, but none of the flaming torches that he'd almost expected to be lining the walls. Shame really; he could have done with the extra light._

_Walking along it, Nikola was surprised to see that these walls were completely bare, even though they had been smoothed down to a rather even surface. It was almost as if the artist had exhausted themselves on the first magnificent painting, and then just stopped._

_He kept walking._

_After about half an hour – just when he was starting to fear for the life of his torch battery – another light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Nikola immediately flattened himself against the cave wall, and tried to keep his breathing light and steady, his eyes never leaving the patch of light. A few minutes passed until he finally moved, at least convinced that the light presented no danger – or so he hoped – and that it was stationary._

_He slunk slowly along the passage again, careful to keep light on his feet in case he needed to make a quick getaway, and turned his torch off, using the other light to see by._

_He turned the final corner to find..._

"_Huh." To say this was not what he'd expected would have been something of an understatement. Exactly what he'd expected he wasn't sure, but it certainly wasn't this._

_He was in a large cave; the source of light was a collection of old fashioned gas lamps scattered around, which were obviously kept locked up. The middle of the room was take up with a laboratory, not unlike one of Helens, or his own, which started in the centre and sprawled outwards wherever it needed to. Nikola had to admit it was a rather good idea; instead of having to fit all your equipment inside a set space, you could spread out as you needed. He filed away the idea for later use, and a small part of his massive brain wondered if Helen had a spare cave he could use. Most of his brain was still taking in the room's most prominent feature._

_The walls were lined with cages._

_Small cells, measuring about 2 foot wide by 3 foot tall, surrounded the lab, stacked on top of each. It reminded him suspiciously of a battery farm. The only thing missing was the noise._

_It was completely silent._

_After a quick check to make sure there was no one around – there wasn't – Nikola stepped into the room proper and made towards the nearest wall of cages._

_He looked into the one just below his eyelevel. A pair of sorrowful black eyes peered back at him._

_He cocked his head to the left; the eyes moved to their right. Nikola rolled his own eyes; he was trying to get a view of more of the creature than its front, but it didn't seem to want to let him. If he moved the right it followed him; if he moved downwards it mirrored him; if he moved backwards-_

"_Ahah!"_

_-it moved forwards...and into the light._

TBC


	11. Uh oh

**Getting less inventive with titles...hmm...**

**So, second part of this flashback. I feel bad for what I'm doing to Nikola.**

Chapter 11 - Uh oh**  
**

The caged creature moved forwards...and into the light.

"_Dammit!"_

_He'd been so sure, so _bloody_ sure that this time he'd be right, that this would be the one and everything could go back to normal. One look at the creature and he knew it wasn't to be._

"_It's not fair!"_

_Nikola knew he sounded like a four year-old having a temper tantrum, but he really didn't care. Everything had been going right (ish): this was supposed to have been the end of his search, the answer to all his problems._

_It seemed it wasn't to be._

_Below the deep black eyes protruded a dog-like snout, covered in fine light brown hair. The abnormal appeared to be four-legged, but it was hard to tell as there wasn't space in the cage for it to stand up anyway, so its front legs could have been arms. Its feet/hands ended in deep blue talons, which seemed to have been filed down to almost half their full length. Nikola frowned and turned away as it picked up its ears at him: the thing's face looked almost like a werewolf, serving to annoy Nikola even more: how wrong could people get it?_

_The creature that was certainly not of any relation to Sanguine Vampiris pushed itself against the bars of its cage, and growled at Nikola. He ignored it; too busy muttering under his breath about false leads and the idiots that gave them._

_The creature growled again, louder this time, with definite menacing undertones._

"_What?" Nikola snapped, stepping closer to the thing again. It blinked its eyelash-less eyes at him, before hurling itself forward, slamming into the front of the cage._

_Nikola flinched backwards in alarm (technically he jumped, but he would deny that forever after) before stepping forwards again. The cage hadn't moved, which meant that either the weight of the cages stacked on top was very heavy, or that it was fixed to the wall. Nikola was leaning towards the latter._

_The creature – he was thinking of calling it Lily after a particular acquaintance he once had that it reminded him of – growled again. This time there were several answering rumbles from around the room. Nikola gave Lily a piercing stare before pointedly walking away, towards the middle of the cave and its lab._

_He didn't need to look far before it became even more obvious that whatever was going on here wasn't entirely legal or humane either._

_Nikola made a decision. Looking back he'd realise that it was possibly the stupidest, most foolhardy and spontaneous thing he'd ever done. Well...maybe he'd made worse choices, but back then he'd been immortal, so considering the circumstances, he really was being quite silly. He could almost hear Helen's voice asking what had happened to his massively superior intellect, and teasing him about going senile._

_Maybe he did it out of frustration, or maybe, as he'd later claim, he simply thought it was the right thing to do: to be honest Nikola didn't know, but that wasn't going to stop him._

_He lifted his arms, rolled up his cuffs and strode into the very centre of the room. He looked across at Lily's cage, and clenched his fists, drawing on the strength inside him he'd now become well acquainted with, and _pulled_._

_The sound of creaking metal filled the room before the cage doors were all flung open and Nikola's intelligence suddenly came flooding back, and he realised just how much of a moron he'd just been for two main reasons._

"_Oh dear."_

_First reason: he'd just destroyed some evil idiot's plans, and evil idiots didn't usually take kindly to having their life's work ruined – Nikola had watched enough films to know _that_. Plus he was completely alone and unarmed._

_And although he was sure reason number one would come back to haunt him at some point, it was reason number two that currently had Nikola very worried._

_He'd just let a large of number of angry, and most likely hungry and violent abnormals out of their cells and into the room. The room which he was still standing in..._

_So Nikola implemented his contingency plan for the rare cases where his brain failed him._

_He ran._

SANCTUARY

_He'd made it to the tunnel entrance before the creatures had decided to venture out of their cells, but after that they'd been after him, their feet – he was now more than aware that they were four-legged – had started pounding after him, the sheer sound caused more adrenaline to flow through Nikola's veins._

_He was still running, and he could still hear those feet. It had to be one of the scariest sounds he'd ever heard, especially as he was fairly sure the noise was getting louder, and the feet closer._

_He looked back briefly to see the eyes of Lily looking back at him from several feet away – he was sure it was her, she had it in for him. She growled at him and he sped up, looking forward again just in time to come face to face with the wall of the original cavern. Unfortunately for Nikola he hadn't been provided with breaks, and so was unable to stop the impact._

"_Owww..." he moaned, flat on his back. Just before his eyes closed he saw Lily jump out of the hole in the roof. She gave him one final glance, and he could have sworn she was laughing; or maybe that was something to do with the lump that forming on his head.  
_

_His vision chose that point to start blackening over, and Nikola was powerless to stop it._

TBC


	12. Fighting

**I am so sorry about the wait, I simply forgot to post 0.o**

**Thanks so much for the reviews, and to everyone who is still with me.**

**I'm almost finished with being evil to Nikola :(**

**Enjoy :P  
**

Chapter 12

The voices were faint. Nikola tried to strain his ears but it hurt to move, and he was so, so tired...

"His vitals are weakening." The voice was cold, clinical and unfamiliar.

Nikola briefly wondered whose vitals they were talking about, before realising that he couldn't move. In fact, now that he thought about it he couldn't actually feel his own body. He figured it was still there, as something was tingling slightly, but he was numb, and not in control. If he could have he would have groaned. It was _him_ they were talking about: his vitals weakening.

"He's losing too much blood." Another he didn't recognise, but this one at least sounded anxious.

"Give him more..." Too faint to make out, but Nikola didn't care, because that was a voice he recognised.

_Helen._

He focused his energy and tried to get her attention.

"Did his eyelids just flutter?" Different voice, female, sounded slightly reptilian.

_Yes._

He wanted to speak, thank her for noticing, but his body wasn't co-operating.

"Can't be." Helen again.

_Oh ye of little faith..._He'd thought she of all people would understand that things weren't always as they seemed.

"We induced a coma for the operation."

_Operation?_

More importantly: they'd put him in a _coma?_

"His vitals are still dropping."

_But I'm fine!_

And then Nikola realised that he really wasn't fine, considering he couldn't move and was apparently in a coma. Oh, and he _had_ been shot.

There was a rushing sound he hadn't noticed before, and a beeping in the background, muffling the voices.

"Keep it steady."

The words he could hear didn't sound as if they were nearby, more like he was listening through the door on one of Helen's private conversations.

Then the rushing got louder, until it overpowered his senses, and the voices disappeared.

***oo***

"The bleeding's stopped."

The beeping was louder this time. Nikola wondered how much time had elapsed since his vitals had been dropping.

"How are his vitals?" It was as if Helen could read his mind. Oh what fun they could have with that. Well, it'd be mainly him having the fun; she'd just spend her time avoiding him.

"Still dropping." Not that much time then.

"Dammit."

_Tut tut Helen._

"We're losing him!" One of the men, too faint to tell-

_Wait...what?_

That did not sound good.

***oo***

"He's back."

_Where'd I go?_

"Thank god."

"But he's-"

The beeping exploded into a frenzy; if he'd been able to Nikola would have winced at the onslaught.

"He's lost too much blood. He's going to die, and there's nothing we can do about it." It was the first voice he'd heard.

_I'm not going to die!_

"He's not going to die!"

_Thank you Helen!_

"He should have been dead hours ago! He's only human!"

"He's not normal, and he's not dead."

"There's nothing we can-"

"Get out. You, take over."

"Wh-?"

"Leave!"

Footsteps. Dr. Uncaring had left the room.

***oo***

"There's too much damage, and he's lost too much blood. It's a miracle he's still alive."

"You too eh?"

_Wow Helen, calm down: if he's dying he's dying, and sometimes there's nothing you can-_

_Ah...he's me. _

_Keep trying!_

Reptile woman spoke again: he'd thought she was on his side. "Obviously something was left from his vampire powers, else he would be dead. But he's human now..."

_Thanks for the reminder._

"... and he's not going to make it. I'm sorry Helen. Truly I-"

"Blood!"

"He's lost too much Dr. Magnus." The other man finally spoke up again.

"No. My blood. Give him my blood! We're the same type."

"What difference would-"

"No time to explain! Just do it."

_Okay Helen, I'm all for saving my life but WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT?_

"He needs a lot."

"Just try not to kill me."

_Helen don't-_

SANCTUARY

_Beep...beep...beep..._

Nikola sighed, and waited to start hearing voices again. He couldn't remember what had been going on last time he'd been semi-awake, but he was sure it wasn't good.

He waited.

And waited.

And waited.

There was a slight sniffing sound that was most likely human – or abnormal – in origin, but apart from that it was just him, the beeping, and the normal background noise.

But that wasn't all that was different; he could_ feel_ again. His fingers tingled, the backs of his hands hurt, and he could feel cool metal against his wrists. His head ached, his legs ached, almost everything ached – except for his stomach which was just downright tender, and he felt _better_.

Nikola smiled slightly, and found that his lips actually responded this time.

"Nikola?"

And that voice, that _concerned_ voice made his happiness complete.

He opened his eyes, extremely grateful that someone had thought to turn the lights down before he woke.

"I thought you'd appreciate not being blinded."

Nikola remembered his earlier thought about mind reading.

"And no, I can't read your mind."

Nikola raised an eyebrow, more for his own benefit than hers considering he was facing the ceiling. After thinking several very outrageous thoughts and getting no reaction, he conceded that she was right, and that she'd just become attuned to his thought patterns after a century of at least casual acquaintance.

His head hurt too much to consider changing positions, so he settled for engaging Helen in conversation to make up for not being able to see her.

"..el..n..."

Or at least he would have if he could actually speak.

"There's some water on your right."

Nikola glanced out of the corner of his eye to gain the approximate position of his drink before heaving his aching arm up and grabbing it. He brought it to his eye level and stopped, and glared.

It was a beaker; a _child's_ beaker, with a sealed top and a plastic bendy straw poking out. If he could he would have ranted about how patronising it was; that just because he was in bed didn't make him unable to look after himself, and he was perfectly capable of drinking from a normal glass.

Unfortunately he would be required to actually use the thing and rehydrate his mouth to be able to do so, which would take away from the effect of such an outburst. Even worse, Nikola was well aware that using a normal glass would require movement, which would obviously promote pain, so all in all the beaker was actually a very good idea.

He could practically _hear_ Helen smirking from across the room.

Nikola glared for a few more seconds, and then drank.

"Not too much: you'll be sick."

He rolled his eyes again, and spoke out loud for the first time in quite a while.

"What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that."

"I mean after I was shot."

There was silence for a minute, during which time he stared at the ceiling, not knowing what else to do.

"We found you, probably less than five minutes later. Henry caught the man who'd done it – a mad scientist it seems." He thought he detected a slight smile in her voice then, but when she spoke again her voice was quieter, emotionless. "You should be dead Nikola. There wasn't enough time to save you."

She paused again, the silence so long this time that he thought she wasn't going to say anymore. He was just about to ask another question when her voice pierced the silence.

"We called the emergency services, they airlifted you to the nearest abnormal friendly medical facility – here, and miraculously we stabilised you."

Nikola mulled over that for a moment. "So you have no idea why I'm alive?"

"Well, obviously it has to do with the Source blood; some remnant of you vampiric healing ability must remain..."

"But apart from that?"

"I have no idea."

"Don't lie to me Helen – I can tell when you're not being honest."

"Honestly Nikola, what are you on about?"

"_Blood_ Helen, _your_ blood."

"How'd-"

"I overheard you."

"Don't be ridiculous, you were in a coma at the time!"

"So you're not denying it?"

"Denying what?"

"That you lied. But I don't understand why."

"Who told you?"

"No one, I've been unconscious remember?"

"Unconscious people don't hear things."

"Maybe I've got superpowers."

Helen sighed from across the room. He thought he heard her mutter: "_Brilliant." _Apart from that it didn't seem like she was going to reply, so Nikola picked up the other strand of investigation.

"Why would your blood make a difference?"

"You'd lost a lot, you needed some – mine was available."

"I'd lost _too _much, and I'm talking about your blood specifically."

"And here I thought you were a genius."

"I've been shot! I think I deserve a few off days!"

Helen chuckled quietly, but didn't make to say anything.

Nikola sighed, and heaved himself upright slightly. He ignored the pain and balanced on his elbows, looking over at Helen. He'd always found it easier to get information out of her if he could read her body language or look into her eyes: he'd trained himself to recognise the signs she gave off back at Oxford, so he'd be able to leg it if she was about to throw something at him – a test tube had been the final straw after it cracked against his head.

This time, he didn't need to be a Helen expert to know how she was feeling

Her eyes were closed, her face gaunt, tired. She was curled up in a plastic chair at the end of his bed, her hair messy and make-up undone.

She was wearing a hospital gown.

He must have made some kind of pained noise as he rose because her eyes suddenly snapped open to meet his.

"Helen-"

"Miss Magnus! You know you should be in bed in your state!" A grey haired but still active woman bustled through the door and started scolding Helen. Nikola was sure that if he hadn't been in such shock he would be having trouble containing his grin.

"I know my limits Elsa, I am a doctor after all."

"Hummpff." Elsa put her arms on her hips and glared. "Back to bed. Now."

Helen sighed but didn't protest. As she dragged herself out of the room she looked back at him once. "You'll be fine." And with that she disappeared through the doorway, leaving him alone with the woman who had only now realised his state of awareness.

"Oh my lawdy Mr. Tesla!" Nikola froze, and wondered who exactly this woman was and where she came from. "You're awake!"

Nikola raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I'm fairly certain I'm still asleep myself."

"Tsk tsk. We'll have none of that now Mr. Tesla; Miss Magnus warned me _all_ about you she did."

"Oh did she?"

"Indeed she did. Was the only thing she'd talk about prop'ly these last few days."

"Only good things I hope." Nikola lowered himself gently back onto his bed, this time higher up so he could still she the door and the strange lady bustling about. Whilst she gave the appearance of being busy he was pretty sure she wasn't actually doing anything. She reminded him of some sort of old-fashioned nanny.

"She told me you was a flirt and a womaniser, and not to take a word you said as true."

"Ah." That hadn't quite been what he'd been hoping for.

Elsa turned to him and stared for a while, as if appraising him. "I'll guess you'll do." Before Nikola could enquire about that baffling statement she continued on anyway. "I'm not sure what she sees in you meself, but each to their own, and I guess you are rather handsome. Kept sneaking out of bed these last few days to watch over you she did. Said she wanted to be 'ere when you woke up, even though no one else thought you would. We all thought you was a goner. If it weren't for her you prob'ly would be."

Nikola stared for a minute, his brain overwhelmed with information. Very interesting information at that, but he pounced on one bit in particular.

"What do you mean 'if it wasn't for her'?" Nikola couldn't help correcting her grammar even though quoting. "What did she do?"

"Well she gave you her blood didn't she? Awful lot of it too. Said it was magical. Although she also said that quite a lot of it was yours anyway. When I asks her what she means she just smiles – patronising like. I was of half a mind to give her a piece of my mind, even though she was only semi-conscious. Young people these days! Tsk."

And with that Elsa flounced out of the room, leaving a rather baffled Nikola behind. However he wasn't left alone for long; obviously Elsa or possibly Helen had informed the other doctors of his apparently miraculous awakening, for soon enough he was surrounded.

TBC

**Next chapter will be as soon as I've written it - no 3 week delays any longer!**


	13. Content

**Ooh, update - wasn't that quite compared to usual? :D**

**I think I've finished bullying the characters now, but no promises.**

Chapter 13 - Content

It had been a day since he'd first woken up, during which time he hadn't been allowed to leave his bed to go further than the bathroom, and he hadn't seen anyone except his caretakers since. He had grown increasingly frustrated at the incompetent idiots, so much so that he'd told them so more than once. They still wouldn't leave him alone, and he still wasn't allowed up.

"I feel fine!"

"Are you at all light headed?" A man who reminded Nikola of an owl asked.

"Are you?" he snapped back, already thoroughly fed of the interrogation the evil doctors were putting him through.

"Just answer the question Mr. Tesla."

"No, I am not light headed." His head still hurt a bit, but it certainly didn't feel _light_.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three."

"How many heads do I have?"

"It won't make any difference to the number of brains between you lot, i.e. zero! Can I go now?"

"Do you feel like you want to suck my blood?"

Nikola glared at owl-man. "If I did would you shut up?"

"Mr. Tesla, if you want to be released anytime soon you will answer the questions truthfully."

"I am!"

"Nikola..." The soft feminine voice brought all other noise to a halt as the room turned as one towards the door.

Helen was stood there, leaning slightly against the door. She looked remarkably better than last time he'd seen her: she was dressed now in normal clothing, hair and makeup done, looking almost like her usual self. There was a sadness though, that seemed to radiate off her in waves. That however, did not stop her glaring at most of the staff who quickly cowered in fear. Only the owl man stood – relatively – firm, even taking a step forwards to confront her.

"Dr. Magnus..." he began, sounding as nervous as everyone else looked. Helen turned her gaze to rest solely on him. "You really should be in bed...Elsa-"

"I've been discharged Dr. Evans. Now I'm sure you've all got better things to do..."

Everyone save Dr. Evans immediately scattered. The poor doctor bit his lip. "I really should finish this..."

"I think you've got everything out of him you're likely to get. If Elsa asks tell her I'm taking over."

Evans let out a small sigh of relief, and quickly vacated the room. It seemed he was a lot more scared of Elsa than he was of Dr. Magnus, but he was rather frightened of her also. Nikola wondered how much the staff here really knew about Helen; whether they'd heard the good as well as the bad, or if their current opinion was just based on meeting the woman herself whilst irritated. He pitied anyone who incurred Helen's wrath – which more often than not was he himself.

Nikola turned to Helen as she stepped closer to his bed. "You haven't really been discharged have you?"

"I discharged myself. Nothing wrong with that; I am a doctor after all."

"Well, in that case you can discharge me too and I'll be on my way."

He made to get up only to find Helen's hand hovering over his chest, preventing him from leaving the bed.

"You're still fragile."

"You make it sound like I'm someone's best china."

Helen looked down and brushed down her skirt before continuing. "We don't know what effects...what the consequences will be yet."

Nikola started to get frustrated. "Okay, situation: I was dying. Action: stop me dying. Consequence: I'm not dying!"

"There may be unforeseen effects of reintroducing the Source Blood into your system."

"It wasn't the Source Blood Helen; it was _your_ blood, which granted is rather special but isn't-"

Helen had tensed at a certain part of his sentence, and Nikola, having been staring at her intently, immediately noticed.

"It was _your_ blood..." Suddenly everything clicked. "But I gave you _my _blood...before I was changed back, when you were dying..."

"I was just giving back what was rightfully yours."

He looked up at her, into her eyes: she held his gaze. "So at least some of what you reintroduced to my system was my original vampire blood."

"Yes, and that's why we have to be careful."

"So that's what all the ridiculous questions were about. Did you tell them I could sprout fangs at any moment and drain their bodies of their lifeblood?"

"You have to admit it's a possibility, especially as it seems you'd retained some remnant of your previous powers, and in fact gained some more!"

"Helen..."

"Nikola-"

"I still feel – god help me – _normal_."

"Your blood work disagrees."

"And what does it tell you? Apart from the fact that I'm perfectly fine and still as handsome as ever?"

Helen couldn't help but smile at that, but her face quickly sobered. "You blood work has proved so far inconclusive, but has changed again and may in fact still be changing."

"So it doesn't tell you I'm handsome?"

"It tells me you're positively hideous."

"Oh Helen you wound me!" He put a hand on his heart to demonstrate the effect she was having on him. Helen quickly grabbed his hand and pulled it down, rolling her eyes as she did so. Nikola noticed that she didn't let go once his hand hit the bed beside him, but chose to keep his thoughts to himself lest she pull away. "You'll have to redo them."

She hummed. Nikola frowned; that hadn't been the reaction he'd been hoping for. He looked up to see her eyes were distant, unfocused.

He brought her back to the present by squeezing her hand slightly, but he didn't like the fear and the sadness that came back into her eyes as she caught up with the conversation. "You're scared, aren't you?"

"What? Don't be ridiculous!"

"Helen, I'm possibly going to become a blood-sucker at any moment and you happen to be the nearest – and tastiest looking morsel in this place. But that's not what scares you, is it?"

Helen blinked in surprise; the man could be astoundingly astute sometimes, usually at the most inopportune moments for her. "We don't know what the effect will be; for all I know you could become a giant spider or a...a_ lizard man_."

Nikola furrowed his brow. "Gosh, that really does sound dire."

"I mean, I sincerely doubt either of those possibilities will come to pass but my point is that we – _I_ haven't got a clue, and so we need to be careful. And that means no wandering freely around this facility until we have more information-"

"_You're confining me my room?_" He asked incredulously.

Helen ignored him. "-_and_ answering these questions Dr. Evans has kindly left for us."

Nikola's eyes widened in despair. "_Helen..."_ He was wining, he knew it, but this was torture indeed!

"Hush Nikola; the sooner we start the sooner we can get some answers." She perched herself carefully on the edge of his bed, facing the room at large but still easily able to see him.

He groaned loudly as she picked up the discarded question sheet and started where the owl man had left off.

"Are you craving blood?"

"Only that damn doctor's." At Helen's glare he relented. "No, but I do fancy a good wine, something French and spicy..."

Helen sighed, exasperated, before continuing through the list. If only to herself she would admit most of the questions were pointless and idiotic, but she wasn't going to say anything, and if it gave her a reason to keep an eye on the old rascal for longer – so he wouldn't cause more trouble, she told herself – so much the better.

Nikola grinned as Helen's eyes perused the list. Despite his complaining he was perfectly content to lie in bed and listen to Miss Magnus' lovely voice, paying just enough attention to be able to actually answer some of the questions, but otherwise not really focused on the words.

Neither of them mentioned their clasped hands that still lay on the sheets, nor made any move to pull away.

Neither of them wanted to.


	14. Grounded

**Sorry about the wait, but I suddenly realised I'd run out of planned plot. We are definately reaching the end, probably one or two more chapters.**

Chapter 14 – Grounded

A few days later and Nikola was bored. Actually, he'd reached bored _before_ being confined to his room, but at least then he'd had people to bully and afterwards he'd had Helen keeping him company. But Helen kept getting called away and everyone else was too scared to approach, or didn't fancy being bullied anymore, and had refused to enter his room.

So now Nikola had passed boredom and moved onto EXTREME BOREDOM. In his mind it was written in red and underlined three times.

He was also irritated; the lack of progress in his case was infuriating. He was sure that it would go quicker if Helen would allow him to work on it with her, but she refused every time he brought it up because he was still dangerous. It was a vicious cycle of logic: he could help and figure it out more quickly, therefore making him less dangerous, but he wasn't allowed to because he _was_ dangerous in the first place.

It made him want to scream.

His only consolation was that at least Elsa hadn't made an appearance in the last few hours.

Over the last few days Elsa had been a constant bother to both of them, interrupting Helen's work and trying to almost mother Nikola. The genius had been extremely baffled and somewhat overwhelmed, not to mention embarrassed when Elsa had given him a talk about looking after Helen properly like the gentleman he was. He'd tried to explain that he wasn't going out with Helen, but Elsa had been having none of it and even told him to send her an invite when they decided to get married.

If it had been anyone else Nikola would have had something witty to say back, or he might have gone along with the whole thing in order to get a rise out of Helen, but there was something about Elsa that had turned him into a bumbling fool.

He might have been able to live with the embarrassment if Helen hadn't been in the room the whole time, hiding behind the curtain because the old woman was still angry at her for being out of bed. As soon as Elsa had left the room the curtain had exploded into chuckles, and Nikola had gone into a sulk – which was part of the reason everyone had been avoiding him.

So now he was _really _bored.

Nikola sighed, and finally decided that enough was enough. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and was just contemplating the hideous slippers he was supposed to wear when Helen walked in, clipboard in hand.

"I see the angel has deigned to visit this lowly mortal; what news does she bring?"

Helen rolled her eyes and looked up at him as she approached. "About that lowly mortal bit..."

"Yes?" he asked, warily.

"Well...you may not be exactly mortal after all."

Nikola blinked, but refused to get his hopes up. "I'm intrigued, please continue."

Helen came to stand next to him, and plonked some files on the bed. She watched as he rifled through them eagerly.

"Is that it?" he finally asked.

Helen frowned. "I haven't exactly had long to work on this, and it's the most conclusive set of results we've got so far."

"Well of course it is! Every other test you've done has either failed or posed more questions than it's answered! And I don't care if that's what science is all about; this is my life we're talking about Helen! Inconclusive isn't going to cut it anymore!" He was well aware he was shouting, but the anger had just been building up; now it had finally found an outlet, he only regretted who he was shouting at.

Helen clenched her jaw, and levelled a glare at him. "I am more than aware of the stakes here-"

"Are you?"

"Yes! Godammit Nikola! I haven't slept in three days for you! I've argued and fought to keep you alive, and I am not giving up; far from it! I just thought you'd appreciate knowing what I've found out, as I found it out, instead of being informed several hours later by one of the staff here you so hate!"

Nikola blinked and looked away awkwardly. "Oh..." Some of the tenseness left the room at his small exclamation. Helen sighed.

"I know it's not what you were hoping for."

"It's not about that."

"No? So you don't want to be a vampire anymore?"

"I thought these tests just told me that that wasn't possible anymore."

"Not impossible, just very unlikely."

"Well that makes _all_ the difference."

Helen glared at the sarcasm. "Nikola, the tests..."

"Tell us what exactly?"

"That you're certainly not normal, and we may have a new lead as to the most likely consequences." Nikola raised his eyebrows. Helen took a breath before starting to explain, that scientific glint in her eyes that Nikola had learned to be wary of. "I didn't think of it before because, well, I was a bit busy, but your blood samples are now looking suspiciously like mine."

There was silence for a minute as he digested the information. "What?"

"I know, but when you think about it...it makes sense! You gave me your blood, and I gave you my blood – which was also your blood, so technically-"

"-we've mixed them up; they're almost the same." Nikola finished for her. "But it doesn't work like that in real life Helen. It's not _possible_."

"I know, but then if we factor in the Source Blood..."

"Hmm...I don't see what you're getting at."

"We still don't understand the Source Blood, but it _could_, and I guess it _must_, have made this all possible. When I gave you my blood, your blood must have somehow recognised your old blood mixed in with it, and adapted itself to what it believed to be its correct form."

"You make it sound as if blood is sentient."

"For all we know it could be."

"Now that really is ridiculous."

Helen smiled slightly.

"So am I like you now? Does this mean I'm not going to age?"

Helen looked up at him, and gently took his hand within her own. "I don't know. Possibly. Maybe."

"That's helpful."

"There's no way to find out except to wait...and do more tests."

Nikola rolled his eyes. "Haven't you prodded me enough for one lifetime?"

Helen grinned. "Nope." She suddenly became serious again. "But no matter how many tests we do...we won't be sure until...well, either you age or you don't."

Nikola sighed: he had never been any good at this patience stuff. "I guess I'll have to stick with you for a while then."

"I'm sure everyone will be thrilled."

"Does this mean I have to..." he shuddered dramatically, "Help out?"

Helen frowned.

"You know, feeding your pets..." His face had taken on a look of horror, which he was somewhat startled to see echoed on Helen's features.

"If you think I'm letting you anywhere near my residents you a sadly mistaken." Nikola breathed a sigh of relief, which turned into annoyance as she continued. "You can barely look after yourself-"

"And you can?"

"I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself!"

Nikola snorted. "Admit it Helen; you'd be lost without me."

"I'd be- honestly!" She went to snatch her hand back from where she'd still been holding his, but he quickly reached out his other hand to hold it in place. Helen glared. "You're unbelievable!"

"I'd be lost without you."

Helen blinked, unsure that she'd heard the almost whispered words correctly. The look of utter sincerity on his face shocked her to the core. She hated how he could completely turn her on her head: a moment ago she'd been irritated with him, and now she was trying not to get lost in his eyes.

So Helen did what she always did in these situations: change the subject.

"We're leaving tomorrow." She carefully extricated her hand whilst she spoke and looked away.

Nikola sighed; he'd really hoped that she wouldn't avoid what he'd said, but he hadn't really expected her to do anything else. He decided to let it lie...for now.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to Old City: there's not much more I can do here, and I don't like to be away for too long."

"Does this mean I can leave this room?"

Helen felt her lips curve upwards slightly at the undisguised hope in his voice. "For the flight, yes, but then I'm locking you away again."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

Nikola glared, and pointedly looked away.

Helen smiled, satisfied to have got back to their usual banter, away from any and all meaningful emotions and conversations. She turned and walked away, reaching the threshold before Nikola called out.

"Helen?"

"Yes?"

"Say goodbye to Elsa for me."

She could hear the smirk that was decorating his face, and she wasn't going to let him get away with it. "No need, she's going to drop by in a minute to say her farewells personally, so you can tell her then."

Helen watched as Nikola's eyes widened in horror, and grinned as he moaned in despair.

As she left the room she bumped into the older woman herself approaching. The temptation to torture her friend even more was just too great, so Helen put a hand on Elsa's shoulder and whispered in her ear.

"He's devastated about leaving: I think he could do with a hug."

"Oh of course dear; I'm very upset meself."

Helen waited outside as the matron flounced in.

"Nikola?" She heard being called out. "Where are you pet?"

A minute later Elsa walked out, frowning.

"I dunno what you've done Helen but 'e's gone!"

"He's hiding behind the curtains."

"Oooh the cheek!"

Elsa stalked back in, and went straight over to the curtains, engulfing them – and the man hidden behind them – in a massive hug, as well as a scolding.

A terrified squawk reached Helen's ears from inside the room. She grinned, and walked off.

TBC

**Concrit and reviews are loved as always.**

**Thanks, and I hope people are still enjoying this story.**

**Edit: Next update will probably be a while; I have exams for the next few weeks :(  
**


	15. Falling

**_So sorry_ for the ridiculously long wait; especially after I promised to update soon. I completely lost my inspiration for this story, and then real life got in the way...grr...so sorry if this chapter feels...odd.**

**Oh, and now it actually gets Teslen.  
**

Chapter 15

Helen sighed and settled back into her seat on their private plane. Once again, she was alone. Henry had gone home several days earlier after a row with Nikola, and the genius himself was...somewhere...

Helen suddenly realised that she didn't know where he was. He had been up front with the pilot, but was kicked out after about two minutes for something or other. He'd walked past her, grinning, and Helen had closed her eyes in despair. She must have dozed off, (or time travelled), because the next thing she knew the clock had jumped forward, and Nikola was now nowhere to be seen. She was starting to get concerned about where the ex-vampire had got to – and more importantly – what he might be doing. She hoped he hadn't broken anything.

Helen sighed and closed her eyes again.

The next second someone was breathing down her neck. She twisted automatically, her body in defence mode, lashing out with her elbow before she had time to register Nikola Tesla's very alarmed face.

_Crunch._

"OWWWW!"

Her eyes widened in horror at the form now spread-eagled on the floor below her, clutching his nose in agony; but she also had to bite back a laugh at the look on his face. He looked completely flabbergasted.

Helen swiftly got up and went to see to the poor man, crouching down next to him. "Let me see." She reached for his nose.

Nikola glared and shuffled away over the floor a few centimetres. "You just tried to kill me!" Helen was fairly sure he was about to start sulking.

"Don't be ridiculous Nikola; you just startled me."

"I'll make a note never to throw you a surprise birthday party: you'd probably _maim_ us all."

Helen rolled her eyes before quickly reaching over and snatching his hand away from his nose, giving him no time to react.

"Hey!"

"Hush."

Nikola opened his mouth to complain and then shut it as Helen glared. That, and talking was starting to hurt. But that didn't stop him grumbling as his nose was suddenly the study of scientific curiosity. He was fairly sure the poking would leave bruises when Helen finally pulled back and stood up, looking down at him two parts exasperatedly and one part fondly.

"You'll live." She declared.

"Oh _goodie_." He paused for a moment, still lying on the floor. "Aren't you going to kiss it better?"

Helen gave him a half hearted glare before starting to move away.

"Owww..." Nikola moaned again, feeling awfully sorry for himself. Helen stopped moving before sighing and turning back. He pouted, and held out a hand. "Considering you almost broke my nose the least you could do is help me up."

Helen rolled her eyes. "You have no one to blame but yourself." Despite her words though she moved back towards Nikola and grabbed his hand, pulling him roughly to his feet. She'd been counting on the fact that the man would steady himself to countermand how off balance she'd tugged him, but unfortunately for her Nikola made no such effort, and suddenly she was stumbling backwards under his weight.

Then she wasn't.

"Gotcha." A quiet voice whispered in her ear. She opened her eyes – having closed them instinctively as she fell – to see Nikola Tesla grinning from ear to ear.

He had grabbed her around the waist with one arm as she toppled, effectively stopping her fall, but now leaving her in a very awkward position, unable to support her own weight or get up with him leaning over her.

"Let me go. Now." She'd meant it to come out commanding, in control, but the proximity of those gorgeous eyes was affecting her sense of...well, everything really. So instead her voice sounded rough and quiet, almost husky.

Nikola couldn't contain a gulp, eyes darkening with something Helen didn't want to think about too much. And she was pretty sure he was staring at her lips.

"Nikola..."

He blinked. "If I let you go now you'll fall."

Helen took a moment to process the conversation, her mind having moved on considerably from her last sentence. When she didn't reply Nikola spoke up again.

"You should thank me really."

"For what?" She managed to get out past her suddenly dry throat.

Nikola licked his lips and smirked, enjoying the power he seemed to have gained over the woman in his arms. "For saving you."

"If I remember correctly it was _I_ who flew all the way out here in the first place in order to save _you_."

"Ah, but that was payment for that time in England..."

Helen scowled. "Let's call it even."

"Oh no; you're in my debt Helen Magnus."

Helen was barely able to repress the shiver that ran down her spine at the way he said her name, somehow rolling the sounds even without any 'r's. "Oh really?" She pushed down the heat racing through her system, trying to regain control.

Nikola smirked, aware of the effect he was having on her, but unfortunately also the effect _she_ was having on _him_, even if it was unintentional on her part. "Uhhh hum..." He was fairly sure that hadn't come out as he'd intended, but he was far too focused on the pair of rosy lips mere centimetres from his own to give the matter much thought.

"And what would I have to do to repay that debt?" And suddenly the tables were turned, and Helen smothered her own smirk as she felt Nikola's heartbeat shoot up as she lowered her voice, his eyes dark and focused on her lips, making her well aware of what she was doing to him.

But Nikola couldn't hear her any longer; his heartbeat in his ears prevented any other sounds from reaching his brain. Supposedly he could have read her lips – a very handy skill he'd picked up whilst in hiding – but that required brain power, which had currently deserted him.

Instead, they both watched as his free hand slowly reached up to cup her cheek. Transfixed, they stared as he slowly brought their lips closer together until-

_DING!_

"_This is your Captain speaking; if you'd kindly retake your seats we shall be landing shortly."_

The moment broken, Helen stumbled sideways out of Nikola's grasp, practically running to her seat as her heart continued to beat wildly in her chest.

A minute later Nikola joined her, taking his seat opposite hers' and looking deceptively calm and collected. Helen felt as surge of anger at his completely unaffected appearance for a moment, until she saw the look in his eyes. The wild emotions playing just beneath the blue surface gave it away: he was just a thrown as she was.

Because even though they'd been chasing each other through the decades, with Helen fleeing and Nikola half-heartedly pursuing, neither had actually expected anything to happen. Helen was meant to be too wrapped up with her work, and still too scarred and haunted by her love for John. Nikola had accepted that a long time ago, and was supposed to be content with occasional flirting and trying to take over the world.

There wasn't supposed to be a happily ever after. There _couldn't_ be.

Neither of them had meant it to happen – not that anything _had_ happened – but all those feelings that had been slowly building for so long in both their hearts had finally been completely realised.

Nikola loved her.

And maybe, just maybe, Helen loved him back.

They spent the remainder of the journey in silence.

TBC

**Thoughts? Concrit appreciated.**


	16. Realisation

**For anyone on Gateworld; I am currently unable to get on to the site (my problem, not the site's), so I won't be online at all for the next two weeks. If any challenges or important stuff comes up, could somebody please PM on here? It would be much appreciated.**

**Anyway, thanks so much for all the reviews, and here's another chapter for you all!**

16 Realisation

Two weeks later and the Sanctuary had mostly settled down into a normal routine – normal for them being paperwork, shooting things and the occasional movie night. Originally the team had been slightly concerned over the safety of keeping Nikola around, and no longer just because he had a tendency to irritate most people he met. Now there was the added danger of the still unknown side effects of the blood transfusion, but after over a week of nothing blowing up and Nikola being his usual cranky self, everyone had stopped avoiding the ex-vampire as much as they could.

That is, everyone except Helen.

Nikola preferred to keep busy (stopped him dwelling on the past he claimed when asked, even though it was the present he was most worried about), and so had been spending most time in his room, alone, working on everything at once and nothing in particular. He'd completely immersed himself, drawn out only when his mortal body reminded him that it required looking after, and even then only because Kate had downright refused to 'be his maid' and bring him food and drink.

In fact, although both of them would be loath to admit it, Kate had been looking after the Serbian genius. Helen had put her in charge of 'Project Tesla'. ("Very inventive m'dear." Nikola had drawled on a rare occasion when the two of the Five were in the same room.) All Kate had to do really was take a photo of Nikola once a day, every day, in the same position, so they could monitor how he was ageing.

"_I honestly don't see why this is necessary." Nikola glared at Helen, whilst actually relishing having her talk to him for once._

_Helen glared back. "So you don't want to know if you're not ageing?"_

"_If it's a requirement for you to invade my privacy, then no!" Nikola snapped out, his frustration at Helen leaking out into his words despite his best efforts. They hadn't spoken properly since they'd almost kissed on the flight back. He'd hunted her down a few times only to have her brush him off, or in one case actually flee from his presence. It was starting to annoy him. "I don't need to be treated like an object of scientific curiosity!"_

"_It's for your own good. And besides, you're in my house, so you play by my rules."_

"_..._Fine!_" He could tell by the looks he was getting from Helen's evil minions (Freeloader and Wolf-boy) that they hadn't expected him to back down quite so easily. Unfortunately Helen knew him far too well: Nikola was curious about his transformation – he was in fact a scientific curiosity to himself, and the good Dr. Magnus had had him eating out of her hand from _'So you don't want to know if you're not ageing?'

_So Nikola just stalked off, retreating to his room and not emerging for three days straight, and even that hadn't brought Helen to see him. _

But instead Kate had been keeping him company: listening to his ranting, giving him the latest gossip and poking at things that generally shouldn't be poked. Nikola had given up telling her off and had instead decided that if she blew herself up it was her own damn fault. Surprisingly he enjoyed her little visits – not only did they mark the passage of time when he forgot to go to sleep, but they also kept him from slipping into complete isolation. Helen had been refusing to see him, so he didn't see why he should make the effort anymore, and her pets and zookeepers were mostly just _stupid_.

In her defence, Helen was _busy_. Or at least that was what she told Will when he decided to bother her about _"the arrogant, stuck up, son of a...ARGH!" _who was still making a nuisance of himself despite hardly seeing anyone.

And speak of the devil...

Will clattered into Helen's office looking like he wanted to murder someone – namely Tesla.

"What's he done now?" Helen asked resignedly.

"Blown up a toaster for 'research purposes'. I asked him what theory could _possibly_ require the destruction of culinary equipment, and do you know what he said?" Helen raised an eyebrow, inquisitive despite herself. "That it was _a secret_!"

"He's just doing it to get attention." Helen had said.

"Yes, yes he is. But it's _your _attention he wants! Just go and speak to him!"

"Will..." Helen sighed as her protégé paced in front of her desk. "Nikola is...like a child. Giving into his demands will make him demand more."

"He's not demanding anything."

"Oh?" Helen was genuinely shocked at that: there was always something her friend was in want of; be it wine, decent equipment or her in a mini-skirt. "So what's the problem?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

"Pardon?"

"You've been...acting odd since you got back with Tesla, and so has he. Normally you two are bothering each other all the time, now you're avoiding him. So something happened, something big."

Helen paused, weighing up her options, before picking the easy way out. "He nearly died."

"This is Tesla we're talking about! He _has_ died at least once!"

"Will-"

"No Magnus, just no. You two need to talk, and soon before you discover he _does_ age and has _died _whilst waiting for to get over whatever this is and actually face him!" Helen glared; Will held up his hands in surrender before backing out slowly. "Just think about it, okay?"

Helen looked down at her desk, hoping an errant paper might solve all her problems. And Will, quite frankly, didn't know the half of it, but Helen had to admit he had a point. She'd been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days, and realised it wasn't so much that she didn't want to see Nikola that was making her avoid him, but rather that she was afraid. Afraid of what he would say; whether he'd brush off the whole plane incident as a joke – because that was something she certainly didn't want. Afraid of what _she_ might do: she'd hurt him enough already. Nikola meant a lot to her; a lot more than she'd previously thought, but now she knew Helen wondered why on earth in had taken her so long to work it out.

She loved him.

It was a shame things were never that simple.

She saved the world on a regular basis: he'd tried to take over the world more times that she could count, and on occasion he had almost destroyed it – although she'd done that too.

It couldn't possibly work out..._or could it?_

TBC


	17. Resolution

**So, here we are; last chapter. Phew, almost a year later my planned two chapter fic has rather evolved wouldn't you say? Will be a short epilogue to tie the last bits up.**

**Thank you so much for all your support; I really appreciate it.**

Chapter 17 – Resolution

Nikola looked up at a knock at his door, expecting to see Kate who was due at any minute for his daily mug shot. Instead he was surprised to see Helen stood in the doorway and looking rather lovely – even more so than usual. He ignored her and his elevated heartbeat and looked back down.

"You never told me what you were doing in Tasmania in the first place."

He stopped tinkering with one of the experiments in his lab. Well, he called it his lab; it was actually his bedroom, but when Helen had refused him access to any of her own labs he had converted his sleeping space into something more useful.

"Checking out the locals – I was thinking of moving there; now I'm not so sure. There's nothing like getting shot to put a man off a place."

"Now's not the time for jokes Nikola," Helen sighed, wondering why he always had to be so infuriating, especially considering their current situation. She knew he used humour as a coping mechanism, a way to shield himself, but it wasn't half frustrating at times.

"Who's joking?" He looked up and held her gaze, his eyes seemingly taunting her.

"Stop it!" For a moment her frustration boiled over to anger as she slammed her hand down on the side of the door frame. Nikola raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in continued defiance. Helen wondered if it would be too unladylike to growl. "You almost died!"

Nikola blinked, the sudden rush of déjà vu making him realise exactly why Helen was acting the way she was – after all, those were the exact same words he'd shouted at her in that hospital bed not so long ago. The situation was almost the same, just with their positions switched. He didn't appreciate the sentiment. Helen was scared; scared for him, like he'd been for her after he'd carried her bleeding body back to the London Sanctuary. This time it was him who had almost died, and she the saviour. _She_ was the frightened one.

"Thanks for not letting me." He whispered back, a small smile quirking his lips upwards for a fraction of a second.

Helen stared for a while, momentarily thrown by the acceptance and the complete change in attitude, before slowly lowering her head in acknowledgment. Things were looking up for the two of them, which meant that she needed to say something before it went any further: there was no point in getting her heart broken if she didn't have to.

"You can go if you like." She kept her voice steady. Quiet, but loud enough to carry – she didn't want to say this more than once. "I've done every test I can; you're clean, and likely not to age at a human rate. Although only time will tell for sure; you're not a danger, so you're free to leave."

Now it was Nikola's turn to stare. He wondered if she was really saying what he thought she was saying. "Leave as in...go outside?"

Helen clenched her jaw. "Yes, outside. Out of this house, this country, as far away as you want to run." They could both hear the bitterness in her voice, but neither of them were quite sure where it came from, or why it was there.

"And why would I want to do that? Well, a trip to the off licence might be nice – you're running out of wine. Again." Helen blinked in surprise, but didn't say anything. Nikola took pity on her after a few seconds. He got up from his table and walked slowly over to her, stopping just under a meter away. "I've got everything I need right here."

Helen stared, unable to quite let herself believe what she was hearing. "Food, board and people to annoy?" she asked, aiming for light-hearted teasing but not able to keep the hope out of her voice.

"Well, that helps, but no." When he received no reply Nikola went on. "You see...I meant what I said in Rome Helen."

Helen felt her heart flip in her chest.

"And what did you say in Rome?" the small smirk on her lips betrayed the fact that she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Oh for-! Forget this!" He'd had a small speech planned out and everything – that did seem to be how things worked according to certain films he'd watched. Unfortunately he hadn't been to _How to Declare your Undying Love 101_ for quite some time. Thankfully he was fairly sure Helen knew exactly what he wanted to say. So the man who was usually in complete control of his words forgot them all and gave into the more impulsive side of his nature: he stepped into Helen's personal space and kissed her.

A few seconds later, she was kissing him back.

Neither of them heard the brief knock on the partially open door five minutes afterwards before Kate came in with her camera.

"Hey Vlad, picture ti- oh..." Seeing her boss snogging Tesla (and rather passionately at that) hadn't quite been the sight she'd been expecting. It did however answer most of Kate's questions about the awkwardness between the two recently. "I'm just going to come back later, okay?" She paused. "On second thoughts, I won't." And with that, she quickly backed out and walked swiftly away.

Halfway down the corridor she bumped into Will going in what could now be considered the wrong direction.

"Have you seen Magnus?"

"Yep."

"Okay...feel like telling me where she is?"

"With Tesla."

"They're _talking_?" Will asked, disbelievingly.

Kate pursed her lips. "No, not really."

"Oh..." Will sighed, not getting it at all. "I'd better go make sure they're alright." He started to move away from Kate, only to be stopped by a hand wrapped around his forearm.

"That ain't such a good idea, not if you want to keep whatever innocence you have left."

"Huh?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "They're making out."

Will's eyes widened to at least twice their usual size. "Oh god..."

"Yep."

"Does that mean Tesla's staying for a bit?"

"Probably. And considering he might be immortal again...he could be here for a while."

Kate hadn't believed it possible for Will's face to get any more miserable.

She was wrong.

SANCTUARY

Helen briefly broke away from Nikola as she heard the door bang shut. She didn't miss his groan of protest at the action though. Turning her head, she furrowed her brow as she glanced at the solid wood; she was fairly sure she'd been too busy to remember to close it. Turning back, she met Nikola's rather darkened eyes in question. "Did someone just...?"

"Yep." He smirked.

"Damn."

The sound of their breathing filled the following silence as they just stared at each other.

"Do you want me to stay?" Nikola asked quietly after a few minutes, going back to their previous conversation about leaving.

Helen couldn't contain a smirk at that. "Was I giving you the wrong impression?"

She was surprised when he didn't make a joke, instead simply staring into her eyes, looking more vulnerable than she'd seen him in quite some time.

"I mean it Helen."

"So do I." She answered, just as quietly as his voice, her smirk transforming into a soft smile instead.

"Say it."

She wasn't sure where all this insecurity had suddenly come from, but she supposed he'd been disappointed one too many times before. Most of which had probably been her fault.

"I want you to stay."

This time he did smirk. "Well, if you _insist_…" Helen mock glared, tempted to tweak his nose at the return of his usual attitude.

"No more running off and getting into trouble?"

"Not unless you're there, preferably with at least one gun – have I told you they make you look sexy?"

Helen smiled, because from now on, she always would be there: right beside him. With at least one gun.

Unfortunately – or maybe fortunately – Nikola didn't give her a chance to dwell on it much longer, as her thoughts were turned back towards something rather..._different _in nature.

**The End**


	18. The End

**I officially hate epilogues.  
**

**To anyone who is still with me: *Falls at feet of dear readers and begs* It's been so long; my sincerest apologies! I had half of this written and then got Sanctuary writers block until I noticed that August had just slipped by and this was last year's challenge for that month!**

**So just over a year later it's finally finsihed: I'm not sure whether I love or hate the ending because it was a really tough one to write. I hope it's to your liking though.**

**For those of you who can't remember what has happened (I had to re-read this entire thing before I wrote this) here is a brief reminder. Although feel free to re-read the whole thing too is you so wish :P  
**

_The story thus far..._

_Helen gets hurt trying to track an abnormal in England, reminisces about her and Nikola star-gazing back in thier youth. The team call Nikola in and he saves her by giving her his blood and his shirt. (Fangirls squee)._

_After Nikola was made mortal by the de-vamper he goes to Tasmania following rumours of vampire like creatures. They turn out to be an evil scientist's were-wolf like lab rats, Nikola frees them and gets himself shot. Helen saves him by giving him her blood (some of which was originally his). The long term effect is uncertain, but his test results start to look like Helen's._

_Somewhat heartfelt discussions are had and they make out. Reader's imagination takes over..._

Five years later

Kate looked at the collected data one last time, just to confirm what was obvious at first glance.

"Yep, no change." She muttered, before snagging the duplicate files from the tables and heading out. To be honest it was what they'd all suspected after a few years, but Kate had seen the project through to the end at the boss' insistence, so now they had the documentation to prove it.

On her way to Magnus' office she bumped (literally) into Will.

"Oof!"

The files scattered everywhere.

"Aw man!" Kate groaned.

Will winced, "Ah…whoops?"

"Watch where ya going next time. Yeesh."

"Sorry. How's the leg by the way?"

"Bad enough that I'm not picking all that up." She raised an eyebrow at the strewn papers, and glared at Will until he got the message.

"Ah, right, yes." He gave a small embarrassed grimace before dropping to the ground to pick up the sheets as his friend looked on. After a few seconds he paused, his hand hovering over one image. "So it's true? He's really not-"

"Yep. Boss'll be happy."

"What? Why? He'll be around longer to annoy her."

Kate stared down at him incredulously. "Are you serious?" she asked. "Oh my god you are." Will blinked in surprise, doing a rather good owl impression. "They're in love!"

"What? No. I mean I know they're…you know…" He made some crude gestures as Kate raised her eyebrows at him. "Yeah, but Tesla's too self-absorbed and Magnus is married to her work!"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Sometimes you are so dense!" Then she relented. "You haven't seen them together – Boss still thinks she has to hide it from us, it's kinda cute. But they've been together five years now; surely you can't miss _that_ sign."

"Exactly! Five years and Magnus is still uncomfortable about her feelings; that means she's unsure."

Kate resisted the urge to growl. She couldn't blame him really; he wasn't the one who had to sit through the two oldies making eyes at each other across the room. Ever since Will had been transferred part time down to London to help Declan pick up again after half his staff were killed, he hadn't been around enough to see what was going on at Old City.

"Okay, fifty bucks says he asks her to marry him before the month's out."

"You really think…?" Will gathered up the last of the documents back into their bundle, before standing up to ponder for a minute, wondering if he'd missed something obvious in his continuing character studies. "Fine. You're on. But I only pay if she says yes."

Kate grinned, grabbed the files, and headed off again, leaving Will staring down the corridor after her.

SANCTUARY

Helen sighed as she stared over the latest mission report. She'd sent Henry and Kate off alone on a simple retrieval and Kate had ended up almost getting shot (again), the bullet in fact nicking her thigh, but luckily not deep enough to cause any serious problems.

But that wasn't the point. It _could_ have been.

She constantly worried about them, even thought they'd proved more than adept at looking after themselves. But Kate, Will (when around), Henry and even the Big Guy seemed to love throwing themselves into danger and leaving her waiting for their calls to come in when she wasn't with them. Helen was still the leading operative in the field, but more and more it seemed like they were going out on their own, and whenever she wasn't watching their backs she felt helpless.

And then of course there was Nikola.

"Stop fretting: they always come back safe."

Helen looked up as the man in question made his presence known.

"And when they don't?" she asked, long since used to his almost mind-reading qualities.

"You know what happens then m'dear, as well as I do."

Helen closed her eyes at that, making Nikola sigh and walk further into the room to lay his hand on her shoulder in comfort. He'd been standing in the doorway to her office or several minutes, watching his partner curled up on her new sofa from his vantage point. He liked to watch her, especially whilst she was thinking, but in this case she'd looked rather more concerned than thoughtful, and it didn't take a genius – even though he was one – to figure out what was bothering her. So he'd stepped in to remind her of what she already knew.

But of course it didn't help.

"That doesn't make it any easier Nikola." She reached up and grasped the hand he'd laid on her shoulder, glad for his presence even though she'd never admit it.

"If it did we'd be laughing."

She couldn't resist a small quirk of her lips at that, morose undertones and all. "That we would."

In the following silence she shuffled over to make room for him, and he obliged by flopping down onto the sofa, making sure he was just that little bit too close – she never complained. Except when he had cold feet, which was always.

Nikola eventually broke the silence. "You could leave you know." He'd waved the words around his own mind enough, had this conversation with her so many times in his head that now it was time to see if all his predictions would come true. Time to hope they didn't.

Helen looked over at him, startled, obviously not expecting that. "What?" she asked.

"Get out before everything goes to hell again." At the complete lack of understanding in her features he continued. "This peace won't last – this place won't last; people will die and it'll hurt. You'll blame yourself _of course_," he scoffed at that, "and slowly start to self-destruct and we'll _all _suffer for it." He turned his best pleading eyes on her, but her face remained a stone. "_Please_ Helen, at least _consider_-"

"No." She cut him off sharply, turning her face away so he wouldn't see the doubts he'd struck, the doubts that had been tormenting her mind ever since Will had died (again) and been resurrected (again). Because one day they weren't going to be so lucky. "I'm needed here."

"Helen," Nikola pushed, wondering if she'd always been this stubborn whilst already knowing the answer. "You've done enough!" He watched as she shook her head and got up to pace in front of him. "So when?"

And suddenly she was shouting. "It's never enough! It never will be _enough_. There's always someone else to save and someone else to lose-"

Nikola jumped to his feet to face her down, grabbing her shoulders to force her to remain still. "Listen to yourself! This is why you need to get out! You'll keep giving everything you've got until one day you've got nothing left to give because it'll be _your body_ on the table instead of one of theirs!"

"THEN IT'LL BE WORTH IT!"

Suddenly the room was filled only with the harsh sounds of their breathing, as they both took in what had just been said. It was something they'd both considered; something that haunted nightmares both waking and sleeping as they crept down dark alleyways with guns ready and waiting. One day one of them would be crying over the other's body; because longevity (even though technically unconfirmed in Nikola) didn't mean bulletproof.

But it was something they lived with.

Finally Helen broke away from her partner's clutches, stalking around him until she flopped back down on the couch. Nikola followed; he always did.

"What about you?" she asked, reaching for some papers on her desk as if disinterested in his answer. "I keep expecting to wake up one morning to find you've upped and left, just like you always did. I'm surprised you've managed to stick it out this long."

Nikola sighed, slowly inching his arm along the back of the sofa until it was practically draped around her neck. She didn't push him away this time.

"I've grown rather fond of this place, more specifically _someone _here in particular. Someone worth sticking around for."

"Oh?" The small sigh was the only thing Helen could be bothered to get out. It wasn't that she didn't like what he was doing – it was very sweet after all – but she was trying to be at least partially angry with him still.

Nikola bit back a growl at her lack of interest.

"Hmm, yes. The most beautiful person I've ever met. Charming, witty, fiendishly clever and somehow manages to put up with me even though I can be such a pain..."

"Uh, boss?"

Helen looked up to see Henry walk through the doorway, tablet in hand, almost buzzing with excitement in his keenness to report to her about whatever it was. However, before she could answer Nikola spoke up, his face the picture of innocence.

"Ah, Henry, I was just talking about you."

Helen rolled her eyes and batted her partner in the chest with the files she was supposed to be working on. And just like that they'd moved on, their argument of just a few minutes before forgiven if not forgotton.

"Urr…you were?" Henry asked, completely baffled.

"No." Helen confirmed, glaring at Nikola and mentally berated him for teasing her poor friend. She turned back to Henry, "What have you got for me?"

"Umm…" Henry blinked, trying to keep track of the conversation. "Yes, urr…new toys! You have got to see the power behind some of these babies!" Having sufficiently regained his composure, he thrust his tablet almost into Helen's nose and started gibbering on about technical stuff as he was wont to do.

Nikola tuned out, uninterested in such primitive matters, and let Helen handle it. Soon enough however he became bored, and so decided that running his fingers along his lover's leg would be a more worthy pursuit.

She didn't agree.

Helen continued to speak, at first only peripherally aware of what he was doing. "How much is it going to cost me?" she asked Henry.

"Oh, umm, well relatively not that much cos…"

The strokes became little figures of eight against the back of her knee, a spot which Nikola knew was rather…sensitive.

"Nikola! Stop that!" she finally snapped.

"Stop what?" he asked innocently as Henry stared and Helen glared.

"_That!" _she hissed, unwilling to mention what had actually going on in front of someone she considered like a son. That, and she wasn't up for playing Nikola's games.

"What this?" he asked before attacking her leg again, this time coupled with tracing the same strokes up and down her opposite arm.

Helen shivered under his touch as Henry stared on in something akin to horror. And then she pounced (not in a good way) and Nikola found himself brutally being battered by some rather heavy files.

"Oww oww _owwwww_!" he quickly scrambled away from his brown haired maniac, retreating to the other end of the sofa and just out of reach of those lethal arms. "What was _that _for?" he pouted, nursing a small paper cut on one arm.

Helen raised an eyebrow, puffing out a breath of warm air as she regained her equilibrium: Nikola always managed to throw her off balance.

"Urr…" Henry stuttered from his place in the doorway, his face somewhat flushed and awkward looking.

"Yes Henry?" she asked politely.

"I'll come back later." Helen opened her mouth to argue but Henry was already spinning around in preparation to flee. Unfortunately that plan was prematurely halted as he slammed straight into Kate who'd been approaching the door, her precious findings clutched in one hand.

Her precious findings scattered all over the floor.

"Seriously?" Kate groaned. "Again? What have I done to deserve this?"

Henry did a goldfish impression before quickly dropping to the floor and attempting to pile the photos up again. And then he stopped.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"Yep," Kate agreed. "Project Tesla."

Nikola jumped up at his name, previous injuries forgotten as he hurried over to stare down at the numerous photos of his face on the floor., each neatly marked with a date ranging from five years ago to yesterday. Photos that all looked exactly the same.

"Do you know how creepy this looks?" he asked.

"Try having them stuck to all four walls of a small enclosed room."

"I think even _I _would be sick of my handsome face by then. Someone obviously likes me." He smirked at Kate who just rolled her eyes and struck a 'well duh' face. Nikola flashed a small grin at Helen before peering down closer over Henry's head to study the mug shots.

Despite first appearances they weren't all the same. Each photo had subtle differences: the length of his hair shifted between the now unorganised frames; the shadows cast on his face longer or shorter depending on when Kate had had a free moment; the slight changes in his expression depending on his mood at the time and what he'd been interrupted from.

Every photo was different, but in all of them one thing remained the same: he didn't look a day older.

He cleared his throat, finally looking directly at his personal photographer for the last few years as she leant against the doorway. "You're sure? I'm not…?"

Kate smiled slightly. "I think these speak for themselves," she confirmed, gesturing to the mess on the floor.

And then Nikola smiled; a full-bodied, sparkling, utterly joyous smile. Kate didn't think she'd ever seen him smile quite like that. She'd seen him happy; since he and the boss had got it together sometimes he'd even buzzed with bliss, but under it all there was always the lingering sadness that logical minds seemed to posses. Because there was always a chance something would go wrong, and everything would be snatched away from him before his eyes for the millionth time.

That was still true now, but it was much less likely.

He turned his grin on Helen then, opening his mouth to declare the findings to her, but he looked so gleeful that Helen really had no choice except to stride over, fling her arms around his shoulders and kiss him senseless; all previous reluctance about displaying affection in front of the children apparently deserting her.

The children in question locked eyes before Kate swiftly pulled Henry to his feet and out of the door, making sure to shut it firmly behind them.

"We should leave them to celebrate," she told him as she started marching off down the corridor. "Once those two start there's no stopping them; learnt that the hard way."

Henry blinked as his brain finally kicked back in and he dashed after her. "But what are they celebrating?" he asked when he'd caught back up. Kate stopped walking and fixed him with an incredulous stare as he also staggered to a standstill.

"Hank, keep up! Tesla's not ageing, just like Magnus."

"Yeah, but we already knew that…"

"No…" she drew out the word, leaving it hanging in the air between them. "We _thought_ it. _Now _we know it. Biiiiggg difference as far as scientists are concerned."

Henry licked his lips. "Ah."

"Yes, ah. Now come on; let's go find Will and the Big Guy and stay far away from that room for a _very _long time."

"Agreed."

SANCTUARY

They'd had adventures, inadvertently started not one, but two world wars – Helen still maintained that it was mostly Nikola's fault, and Nikola still maintained that it wasn't his fault people used his inventions for evil purposes, it was hers. She never had understood that last bit, but had long since learned that arguing with Nikola just made him smile, and she never had been able to resist that smile.

They'd both almost died; been mortally wounded only to be given the chance to live again by the other. And here they both were, finally, shining brightly over the world, forever admired and gazed upon from afar, only those select few to whom they were really close save each other: not that they were lacking in friends or family.

Even when they eventually died – if they ever did or even could (neither had felt like testing the theories out) – they would both be remembered for as long as there was a lust for knowledge and curious human minds about.

Castor and Pollux, Helen and Nikola. Gender differences and relationships aside, they weren't that different after all.

And maybe that was a good thing.

THE END

P.S: Kate won the bet.


End file.
